SCENES 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


SCENES   FROM   THE   LIFE   OF 
BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 


SCENES 

FROM  THE  LIFE  OF 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 


BY 

LOUIS  A.  HOLMAN 


REPRODUCTIONS  OF  PAINTINGS 

BY   CHARLES   B.  MILLS 
IN  THE  FRANKLIN  UNION,  BOSTON 


BOSTON 

SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 
MCMXVI 


V  . 


COPYRIGHT,  1916 

BY  SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 
BOSTON 


ILLUSTRATIONS  COPYRIGHT,  1909,  1911,  1912,  1913 
BY  THE  FRANKLIN  FOUNDATION 


PRESS    OF 

MURRAY    AND    EMERY    COMPANY 
CAMBRIDGE 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Page 

PREFACE xi 

FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 1 

FRANKLIN  THE  PRINTER 9 

FRANKLIN  THE  BUILDER  OF  FORTS 15 

FRANKLIN  THE  LIBRARIAN 21 

FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 27 

FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 37 

FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT:  ABROAD 47 

FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT:  AT  HOME 65 

FRANKLIN   THE   DIPLOMATIST:  IN  FRANCE 71 

FRANKLIN'S  FINAL  HOME-COMING  . .  79 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  FRANKLIN  UNION Frontispiece 

Opposite  Page 

FRANKLIN  SELLING  BALLADS  ON  THE  STREETS  OF  BOSTON      1 

FRANKLIN  THE  PRINTER'S  TRENTICE 9 

FRANKLIN  BUILDING  FORT  ALLEN 15 

FRANKLIN    LIBRARIAN  OF    THE  LIBRARY   COMPANY  OF 
PHILADELPHIA 21 

FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 27 

FRANKLIN  MAKING  His  FAMOUS  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIMENT  37 

FRANKLIN  AT  THE  BAR  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS  . .  47 

FRANKLIN  SIGNING  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  65 

FRANKLIN  SIGNING  THE  TREATY  OF  ALLIANCE 71 

FRANKLIN'S  FINAL  HOME-COMING  . .  79 


SCENES  FROM  THE  LIFE   OF 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 


PREFACE 

THE  paintings  which  form  the  subject  of  this  volume 
constitute    the   frieze  in    the    entrance   hall    of    the 
Franklin    Union    Building    on    Berkeley    Street    in 
Franklin's  native  town,  Boston.    It  is  fitting  that  reference 
should  be  made  to  the  fund  which  has  produced  Franklin 
Union  and  to  the  work  which  this  institution  is  accomplish 
ing.    No  better  description  could  be  given  of  the  origin  of 
the  bequest   than   that  penned  by  Franklin  himself   in  the 
codicil  of  his  will  written  in  June,   1789,  from  which  the 
following  paragraphs  are  selected. 

"It  having  long  been  a  fixed  political  opinion  of  mine, 
that  in  a  democratical  State,  there  ought  to  be  no  Offices  of 
Profit,  for  the  reasons  I  had  given  in  an  Article  of  my  drawing 
in  our  Constitution,  it  was  my  intention  when  I  accepted  the 
Office  of  President*  to  devote  the  appointed  Salary  to  some 
public  Uses,  ...  I  do  hereby  .  .  .  direct  that  the  certifi 
cates  I  have  for  what  remain's  due  to  me  of  that  Salary  be 
sold  towards  raising  the  Sum  of  Two  thousand  Pounds  Ster 
ling,  to  be  disposed  of  as  I  am  now  about  to  order." 

"I  was  born  in  Boston,  New  England  and  owe  my  first 
instructions  in  Literature,  to  the  free  Grammar  Schools  es 
tablished  there:  I  have  therefore  already  considered  those 
Schools  in  my  Will.f  But  I  am  also  under  obligations  to  the 
State  of  the  Massachusetts,  for  having  unasked  appointed 
me  formerly  their  Agent  in  England  with  a  handsome  Salary : 
which  continued  some  years:  and  altho'  I  accidentally  lost, 
in  their  service,  by  transmitting  Governor  Hutchinson's 
Letter  much  more  than  the  amount  of  \vhat  they  gave  me,  I 

*  Of  Pennsylvania.  f  Franklin  Medals. 

XI 


PREFACE 

do  not  think  that  ought  in  the  least  to  diminish  my 
Gratitude. 

"I  have  considered  that  among  Artisans  good  Apprentices 
are  most  likely  to  make  good  Citizens,  and  having  myself 
been  bred  to  a  manual  Art  Printing,  in  my  native  Town,  and 
afterwards  assisted  to  set  up  my  business  in  Philadelphia  by 
kind  loan  of  Money  from  two  Friends  there,  which  was  the 
foundation  of  my  Fortune,  and  of  all  the  utility  in  life  that 
may  be  ascribed  to  me,  I  wish  to  be  useful  even  after  my 
Death,  if  possible,  in  forming  and  advancing  other  young  men 
that  may  be  serviceable  to  their  Country  in  both  those 
Towns. 

"To  this  End  I  devote  Two  thousand  Pounds  Sterling, 
which  I  give,  one  thousand  thereof  to  the  Inhabitants  of  the 
Town  of  Boston,  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  other  thousand 
to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  in  Trust  to  and 
for  the  Uses,  Interests  and  Purposes  hereinafter  mentioned 
and  declared. 

"The  said  sum  of  One  thousand  Pounds  Sterling,  if 
accepted  by  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Town  of  Boston,  shall  be 
managed  under  the  direction  of  the  Select  Men,  united  with 
the  Ministers  of  the  oldest  Episcopalian,  Congregational  and 
Presbyterian  Churches  in  that  Town;  who  are  to  let  out  the 
same  upon  Interest  at  five  per  cent  per  Annum  to  such  young 
married  artificers,  under  the  Age  of  twenty -five  years,  as  have 
served  an  Apprenticeship  in  the  said  town;  .  .  .  And  in  order 
to  serve  as  many  as  possible  in  their  Turn,  as  well  as  to  make 
the  Repayment  of  the  principal  borrowed  more  easy,  each 
Borrower  shall  be  obliged  to  pay  with  the  yearly  Interest,  one 
tenth  part  of  the  principal,  which  Sums  of  Principal  and  Inter 
est  so  paid  in,  shall  be  again  let  out  to  fresh  Borrowers.  And 
as  it  is  presumed  that  there  will  always  be  found  in  Boston 
virtuous  and  benevolent  Citizens  willing  to  bestow  a  part  of 
their  Time  in  doing  good  to  the  rising  Generation  by  Super- 
ait 


PREFACE 

intending  and  managing  this  Institution  gratis,  it  is  hoped  that 
no  part  of  the  Money  will  at  any  time  lie  dead  or  be  diverted 
to  other  purposes,  but  be  continually  augmenting  by  the 
Interest,  .  .  . 

"If  this  plan  is  executed  and  succeeds  as  projected  without 
interruption  for  one  hundred  Years,  the  Sum  will  then  be  one 
hundred  and  thirty-one  thousand  Pounds  of  which  I  would 
have  the  Managers  of  the  Donation  to  the  Town  of  Boston, 
then  lay  out  at  their  discretion  one  hundred  thousand  Pounds 
in  Public  Works  which  may  be  judged  of  most  general  utility 
to  the  inhabitants  such  as  Fortifications,  Bridges,  Aqueducts, 
Public  Building,  Baths,  Pavements  or  whatever  may  make 
living  in  the  Town  more  convenient  to  its  People  and  render 
it  more  agreeable  to  strangers,  resorting  thither  for  Health  or 
a  temporary  residence.  The  remaining  thirty-one  thousand 
Pounds,  I  would  have  continued  to  be  let  out  on  Interest  in 
the  manner  above  directed  for  another  hundred  Years,  as  I 
hope  it  will  have  been  found  that  the  Institution  has  had  a 
good  effect  on  the  conduct  of  Youth,  and  been  of  Service  to 
many  worthy  Characters  and  useful  Citizens.  At  the  end  of 
this  second  Term,  if  no  unfortunate  accident  has  prevented 
the  operation  the  sum  will  be  Four  Millions  and  Sixty  one 
thousand  Pounds  Sterling,  of  which  I  leave  one  Million  sixty 
one  Thousand  Pounds  to  the  Disposition  of  the  Inhabitants 
of  the  Town  of  Boston  and  Three  Millions  to  the  disposition 
of  the  Government  of  the  State,  not  presuming  to  carry  my 
view's  farther." 

"Considering  the  accidents  to  which  all  human  Affairs 
and  Projects  are  subject  in  such  a  length  of  Time,  I  have  per 
haps  too  much  flattered  myself  with  a  vain  Fancy,  that  these 
Dispositions,  if  carried  into  execution,  will  be  continued  with 
out  interruption,  and  have  the  Effects  proposed :  I  hope,  how 
ever,  that  if  the  Inhabitants  of  the  two  Cities  should  not 


Xlll 


PREFACE 

think  fit  to  undertake  the  execution  they  will  at  least  accept 
the  offer  of  these  Donations  as  a  Mark  of  my  good- Will,  a 
token  of  my  Gratitude  and  a  Testimony  of  my  earnest  desire 
to  be  useful  to  them  even  after  my  departure.  ..." 

Owing  to  changing  industrial  conditions,  the  provision 
for  letting  out  the  money  to  young  artificers  did  not  meet 
with  the  success  Franklin  anticipated  and  since  1836  the  fund 
has  been  cared  for  by  ordinary  investment.  Virtuous  and 
benevolent  citizens  have  not  been  lacking  and  at  the  end  of 
one  hundred  years,  on  July  1,  1891,  the  total  fund  amounted 
to  $391,168.68.  This  fund,  which  was  less  than  that  estimated 
by  Franklin,  was  divided  and  the  two  parts  proportioned  ac 
cording  to  the  will.  On  October  20,  1893,  the  City  of  Boston's 
portion  was  adjudged  to  be  $322,490.20  (Franklin  Fund,  first 
part),  while  on  June,  1902,  the  balance  to  remain  on  interest 
for  one  hundred  years  after  1891  was  $102,455.70  (Franklin 
Fund,  second  part).  It  became  necessary  to  ask  the  Supreme 
Court  to  construe  Franklin's  will,  which  resulted  in  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  Board  of  Managers  by  the  Court,  consisting 
of  twelve  "citizens,"  including  the  mayor  and  the  ministers 
as  specified  in  the  will.  By  Chapter  569,  of  the  year  1908, 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature  incorporated  the  Board  as  The 
Franklin  Foundation. 

An  industrial  school  seemed  in  the  judgment  of  the  man 
agers  to  be  the  public  work  of  most  general  utility  to  the  in 
habitants  of  Boston.  The  building  and  equipment  is  the 
result  of  this  bequest  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  land  on  which 
the  building  stands  being  provided  by  the  City  of  Boston,  and 
the  first  step  toward  a  maintenance  fund  being  in  the  form  of 
a  donation  by  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie  of  $408,000,  an  amount 
equal  to  the  first  part  of  the  Franklin  Fund  in  December, 
1905. 

The  building  was  completed  in  1908  at  a  cost  of  $364,000. 

xiv 


PREFACE 

An  additional  sum  of  $61,000  has  since  been  expended  for 
equipment.  Franklin  Union  was  opened  for  students  in 
September,  1908,  with  a  registration  of  five  hundred  and  four 
teen  (514)  men,  handled  by  thirteen  (13)  instructors.  The 
growth  of  the  school  has  been  exceptionally  rapid,  in  1915 
reaching  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty-seven  (1587)  students  and 
fifty-five  (55)  instructors.  During  the  first  seven  years,  over 
eight  thousand  different  men  enrolled  as  students.  The  instruc 
tion  is  intended  to  supplement  the  work  of  men  employed  in 
the  trades  or  industries,  with  subjects  selected  from  the  fields 
of  civil  engineering,  industrial  chemistry,  electricity,  drafting, 
naval  architecture,  machine  design,  pharmacy,  automobile 
engines  and  steam  engineering.  The  average  age  of  the  stu 
dents  enrolled  has  been  over  twenty-five  years,  several  years 
the  senior  of  the  graduates  of  college  or  technical  school.  A 
most  complete  engineering  and  scientific  equipment  in  the 
hands  of  experts  selected  from  the  industries,  and  from  the 
staffs  of  the  neighboring  technical  schools,  enables  Franklin 
Union  to  make  men  more  efficient  in  their  work,  to  improve 
their  skill,  intelligence  and  earning  power,  and  thus  to  bring 
benefit  to  their  families,  to  their  employers  and  to  the 
community. 

The  mottoes  accompanying  the  paintings  are,  with  one 
exception,  from  the  writings  of  Franklin.  They  are  as 
follows : 

"He  that  hath  a  Trade  hath  an  Eftate." 
"The  found  of  your  Hammer  at  five  in  the  morning  or 
nine  at  night  heard  by  a  Creditor  makes  him  eafy  six  months 
longer." 

"It  has  ever  been  a  Pleafure  to  me  to  see  Good  Workmen 
handle  their  tools." 

"When  men  are  employed  they  are  beft  contented." 
"Every  act  of  Oppreffion  will  Sour  their  Tempers  leffen 
greatly  if  not  Annihilate  the  Profits  of  your  Commerce  with 

xv 


PREFACE 

them  and  Haften  their  final  Revolt  for  the  seeds  of  Liberty 
are  Univerfally  found  there  and  Nothing  can  Eradicate  them." 

'They  that  won't  be  Counfelled  cannot  be  helped." 

'Those  who  would  give  up  Effential  Liberty  for  a  little 
Temporary  Safety  deferve  neither  Liberty  nor  Safety." 

"We  muft  all  Hang  Together  or  Affuredly  we  fhall  all 
Hang  Separately." 

"Without  Juftice  Courage  is  Weak." 

"One  whom  all  Europe  held  in  high  Eftimation  for  his 
Knowledge  and  Wifdom  who  was  an  Honor  not  to  the  Englifh 
nation  only  but  to  Human  Nature."-  -Lord  Chatham. 

'The  Nobleft  Queftion  in  the  World  is  what  Good  may  I 
do  in  it." 

"I  would  rather  have  it  said  He  Lived  Ufefully  than  He 
Died  Rich." 

"Being  Ignorant  is  not  fo  much  a  Shame  as  being  Un 
willing  to  Learn." 

"The  Doors  of  Wifdom  are  never  fhut." 

"Read  much  but  not  too  many  Books." 

"I  hope  the  Peace  may  be  lafting  and  that  the  free  Consti 
tution  we  now  enjoy  may  long  contribute  to  promote  our  com 
mon  Felicity." 

"May  we  never  see  another  War!  for  in  my  opinion  there 
never  was  a  good  War  or  a  bad  Peace." 


xvi 


FRANKLIN  SELLING   BALLADS   ON   THE   STREETS   OF   BOSTON 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  was  a  product  of  Boston  in 
every  sense  of  the  word.  He  was  born  here,  January 
17  (N.  S.),  1706,  in  a  little  wooden  house  on  Milk 
Street.  Just  across  the  way  stood  the  Old  Cedar  Meeting 
House,  replaced  a  few  years  after  Franklin  left  Boston  by  the 
present  "Old  South."  Here,  on  the  day  of  his  birth,  he  was 
baptized.  It  was  in  the  Puritan  Boston  of  the  early  eighteenth 
century  that  Franklin  spent  his  boyhood;  then,  happily,  too 
late  to  feel  the  bitter  intolerance  of  that  earlier  Boston  which 
had  banished  non-conformists  and  executed  Quakers  and 
witches.  His  home  was  a  happy  one  and  wisely  ordered.  Of 
luxury  there  was  none,  but  Franklin  assures  us  that  of  the 
needful  things  there  was  always  a  plenty.  Attention  was 
paid  to  the  head  as  well  as  to  the  heart;  there  was  good  cheer 
at  all  times.  As  Franklin  was  the  fifteenth  child  in  the  family 
(with  two  yet  to  come),  he  was  no  novelty  and  ran  small 
chance  of  being  spoiled.  It  is  an  interesting  thing  to  note, 
since  Franklin  is  often  spoken  of  as  one  of  the  best  educated 
men  of  the  time,  that  his  school  education  began  at  the 
Boston  Grammar  School,  when  he  was  eight  years  of  age,  and 
that  Master  George  Brownell  put  the  finishing  touches  on  it 
when  he  was  ten.  Short  as  was  his  school  career,  it  was 
fresh  in  Franklin's  mind  when  he  made  his  will  many  years 
later,  for  he  says  therein:  "I  was  born  in  Boston,  New  Eng 
land,  and  owe  my  first  instructions  in  Literature  to  the  free 
Grammar  Schools  established  there:  I  have  therefore  con 
sidered  these  Schools  in  my  Will."  Thousands  of  the  "best 
scholars"  of  the  Boston  schools  have  received  the  much 

[PAGE  1  ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

coveted  silver  medals  which  Franklin's  generosity  provided. 
These  medals  still  serve  with  each  generation  to  keep  green 
the  memory  of  one  of  the  most  famous  of  Boston  school 
boys. 

After  leaving  school,  where  he  made  a  pitiable  showing 
in  mathematics,  he  worked  as  his  father's  assistant  in  the 
tallow-candle  business  for  about  two  years.  Then,  at  the 
mature  age  of  twelve,  he  signed  apprentice  indentures  with 
his  brother  James,  who  was  editor  and  publisher  of  The 
New  England  Courant,  America's  fourth  newspaper.  James 
showed  himself  jealous  and  thrifty  rather  than  brotherly  in 
his  relations  with,  perhaps,  the  most  valuable  apprentice  that 
master  printer  ever  had;  while  the  boy,  on  his  part,  was  im 
pertinent,  wise  beyond  his  years,  and  thoroughly  convinced 
of  his  own  importance.  It  was  not  an  enviable  situation  for 
either  brother.  Finally,  when  he  had  served  his  brother  about 
two-thirds  of  the  specified  time,  the  apprentice  in  no  very 
dignified  manner  brought  the  affair  to  an  abrupt  end  by 
running  away. 

Although  Boston  had  had  her  son  Franklin  in  her  keeping 
less  than  eighteen  years,  she  nourished  him  and  made  him 
what  he  was.  She  was,  indeed,  his  alma  mater,  and  when  he 
left  her  the  formative  period  of  his  life  was  past,  and  he  went 
forth,  with  all  his  virtues  and  his  faults,  a  mature  man  in 
everything  but  years.  This  was  in  1723,  a  decade  before 
Washington  was  born.  Thus,  while  the  first  sovereign  of  the 
House  of  Brunswick  was  struggling  to  pronounce  in  English 
the  names  of  his  new  possessions,  a  runaway  'prentice  boy 
of  His  Majesty's  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay  was  already 
developing  into  a  leader  of  the  men  who  were  to  wrest  from 
the  king's  great-grandson  a  large  share  of  the  royal  dominion. 

"Franklin  upon  the  whole,"  says  his  biographer,  James 
Parton,  "spent  a  very  happy  boyhood,  and  his  heart  yearned 
toward  Boston  as  long  as  he  lived.  When  he  was  eighty-two 

[PAGE  2 ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

years  old,  he  spoke  of  it  as  'that  beloved  place.'  He  said  in 
the  same  letter  that  he  would  dearly  like  to  ramble  again 
over  the  scenes  of  so  many  innocent  pleasures;  and  as  that 
could  not  be,  he  had  a  singular  pleasure  in  the  company  and 
conversation  of  its  inhabitants.  'The  Boston  manner,'  he 
touchingly  adds,  'the  turn  of  phrase,  and  even  the  tone  of 
voice  and  accent  in  pronunciation,  all  please  and  seem  to 
revive  and  refresh  me.'  '  The  Franklin  Institute,  the  gift  of 
a  grateful  son  to  his  native  place,  bears  eloquent  testimony  to 
the  sincerity  of  these  words  of  Franklin.  He  returned  to  Bos 
ton  in  1724  to  consult  with  his  father,  and  again  visited  his 
native  place  in  1733,  1743,  1753,  1763.  He  saw  it  for  the 
last  time  from  Cambridge  in  1775. 

When  Franklin  was  about  fifteen  and  had  been  an  ap 
prentice  some  three  years,  his  brother  James  saw  a  chance  to 
use  the  lad  in  a  way  not  nominated  in  the  bond,  but  agreeable 
to  both  parties.  It  promised  to  feed  their  vanity  and  fill  their 
pockets.  This  was  that  the  boy  should  indulge  the  family 
fondness  for  rhyming,  of  which  he  had  given  evidence  some 
seven  years  before,  and  write  ballads  upon  current  events. 
These  were  to  be  printed  and  sold  on  the  street  by  himself. 
There  was  abundant  precedent  for  this,  if  Franklin  even  in 
his  youth  ever  felt  the  need  of  such  support.  At  that  time  in 
America  and  England  ballad  writing  and  selling  was  a  lucra 
tive  adjunct  of  the  printer's  trade.  The  products  of  the  pen 
of  a  Bostonian  named  Fleet  were  so  popular  in  Franklin's 
day  that  he  derived  from  them  alone  sufficient  remunera 
tion  to  support  his  family.  Franklin's  grandfather,  Peter 
Folger,  and  his  Uncle  Benjamin  used  very  frequently  to  dis 
pense  wisdom  in  sugar-coated  pills  of  pious  rhyme.  Their 
young  kinsman  may  have  felt  that  from  both  sides  of  the 
house  he  inherited  the  ability  to  produce  acceptable  ballads. 
In  any  case  he  summoned  the  tragic  muse  and  wrote  two 
ballads.  A  verse  from  one  of  these,  recounting  the  capture 

[PAGE  3 ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

of  the  famous  pirate,  Edward  Teach  (Blackbeard),  is  given 
in  Weems's  "Franklin."    It  reads: 
"Come  all  you  jolly  sailors, 

You  all  so  stout  and  brave; 
Come  hearken  and  I'll  tell  you 
What  happen'd  on  the  wave. 
Oh!  'tis  of  that  bloody  Blackbeard 

I'm  going  now  for  to  tell; 
And  as  how  by  gallant  Maynard 

He  soon  was  sent  to  hell  — 
With  a  down,  down,  down,  derry  down." 

The  other  was  entitled  "The  Light-house  Tragedy."  Of 
it  we  unfortunately  have  not  so  much  as  a  line,  but  even 
without  this  doubtless  conclusive  evidence  we  are  prepared 
to  accept  Franklin's  own  statement  that  both  ballads  were 
"wretched  stuff." 

Parton  says  that  Franklin  inherited  the  family  propensity 
for  rhyming  but  that  he  also  inherited  "the  family  inability 
to  rhyme  well." 

Although  the  Blackbeard  ballad  was  not  a  "best  seller," 
the  other  one  went  off  rapidly.  Naturally  the  boy  was  de 
lighted.  But  his  father  pointed  out  that  "verse-makers  were 
generally  beggars,"  and  he  showed  him  that  in  the  long  run 
he  would  be  better  off  in  mastering  a  good  prose  style  rather 
than  in  writing  doggerel  ballads.  To  the  credit  of  the  youth 
be  it  said  that  he  looked  the  matter  squarely  in  the  face  and 
followed  his  father's  advice.  The  world  owes  Josiah  Franklin 
a  thousand  thanks  for  what  it  gained  in  Franklin's  prose  - 
and  for  what  it  was  spared  of  Franklin's  verse. 


The  first  painting  in  Mr.  Mills's  series  shows  the  boy 
Franklin  offering  his  ballads  for  sale  in  front  of  the  Town 
House  (Old  State  House)  on  Washington  Street,  then  known 

[PAGE  4 ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

as  Cornhill.  As  the  earliest  authentic  portrait  of  Franklin 
was  painted  when  he  was  fifty,  the  portrait  here  is  wholly 
imaginary,  yet  we  can  well  believe  that  the  face  of  the  boy 
before  us  would  develop  all  the  characteristics  of  the  Franklin 
face  that  we  know  so  well. 

Careful  research  and  faithful  adherence  to  the  data  found 
render  the  costumes  in  this  painting  as  well  as  those  in  all 
of  the  series  historically  correct.  The  little  shoulder  capes 
and  full  skirts,  marked  features  of  the  women's  dress  of  that 
day,  are  shown  here.  The  matronly  lady  in  the  hood  is 
glancing  at  Franklin  as  he  "cries  his  wares,"  or  perhaps  she 
is  attracted  by  the  younger  woman's  smart  straw  hat,  for 
"straws"  were  then  "just  coming  in." 

On  the  side  of  the  State  House  may  be  seen  the  Bulletin 
Board  for  posting  notices  of  the  sailing  of  ships.  Although 
bears  were  still  shot  from  Long  Wharf  as  they  swam  across 
the  harbor,  we  read  that  almost  every  day  now  some  sort  of 
craft  entered  and  cleared  the  port  of  Boston,  while  about  once 
a  week  there  was  an  arrival  from  England.  The  town,  which 
contained  about  12,000  persons,  was  essentially  an  English 
town.  It  held  two  great  fairs  annually  and  did  not  forget  to 
honor  the  King's  Birthday  in  May  nor  to  rejoice  over  the  ar 
rest  of  Guy  Fawkes  in  November.  The  much-talked-of  cows 
that  had  assisted  in  laying  out  Boston's  streets  were  already 
things  of  the  past,  but  real  cows,  that  of  the  Franklin  family 
among  them,  grazed  uninterruptedly  on  the  historic  Common. 

The  escort  of  the  lady  who  is  casting  envious  glances  at 
the  new  straw  hat  is  apparently  reading  the  titles  of  the  books 
in  the  window  of  John  Checkley's  book-store  —  for  this 
probably  was  his  store.  Boston,  even  in  that  early  day,  was 
fond  of  books  and  supported  about  ten  book-stores.  Old 
Cornhill  was  the  centre  of  the  trade.  Daniel  Henchman's 
store  on  the  corner  of  King  (now  State)  Street  may  be  seen 
in  the  painting.  He  lived  with  his  family  in  the  good  old 

[PAGE  5 ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

English  way  "above  the  business."  Henchman's  store  occu 
pied  the  site  of  the  house  of  Captain  Keayne,  who  generously 
presented  to  Boston  the  first  Town  House.  He  was,  too,  the 
organizer  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company 
of  Boston.  The  book-store  of  Nicholas  Boone  was  near  by, 
and  on  the  corner  of  Water  Street  —  to  the  left  of  the  old 
coach  that  is  going  down  Cornhill,  may  be  seen  the  Heart 
and  Crown  Printing  Office.  One  door  this  way  is  the  Blue 
Anchor  Tavern,  with  its  sign  overhanging  the  street.  Oppo 
site  is  the  store  of  William  Jackson,  known  as  the  Brazen  Head, 
the  swinging  sign  of  which  (in  the  painting)  hides  a  portion 
of  the  old  Cedar  Meeting  House.  Its  belfry  as  here  shown  is 
correct  and  comes  from  the  British  Museum  copy  of  Price's 
Map  of  Boston.  The  building  this  side  of  the  church  is  the 
Governor  Winthrop  mansion,  which  was  destroyed  by  the 
British  troops  during  the  occupation  of  Boston  in  1775. 


BUILDINGS,  SITES,  ETC.,  ASSOCIATED  WITH  FBANKLIN, 
STILL  TO  BE  SEEN  ABOUT  BOSTON 

1.  The  Old  State  House  standing  on  the  corner  of  State  and 
Washington  Streets  has  recently  been  restored,  so  that  it  looks 
much  as  it  did  in  Franklin's  time,  when  it  was  the  Town  House. 

2.  On  Unity  Street  in  the  North  End  (No.  19)  can  still  be 
seen  the  house  which  Franklin  provided  as  a  home  for  his 
sisters  Elizabeth  and  Jane. 

3.  In  possession  of  the  Bostonian  Society,  in  the  Old  State 
House,  is  the  printing-press  from  James  Franklin's  office,  at 
which  his  'prentice  brother  worked. 

4.  Here,  too,  will  be  found  the  Blue  Ball,  dated  1698, 
which  Josiah  Franklin  erected  as  a  sign  over  the  door  of  his 
two  tallow-chandleries. 

5.  There  are  two  records  of  the  birth  of  "Benjamin,  Son 
of  Josiah  Frankling  and  Abiah  his  Wife  born  6  Jan'y  1706." 

[PAGE  6  ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

One  may  be  seen  at  the  Old  South  Meeting  House,  and  the 
other  at  the  Registry  Department,  City  Hall. 

f  6.  In  the  Old  Granary  Burial  Ground  an  obelisk  marks 
the  graves  of  the  parents  of  Franklin,  bearing  an  inscription 
written  by  their  famous  son. 

7.  Here,  too,  may  be  seen  the  grave-stone  of  Franklin's 
good  old  Uncle  Benjamin,  who  had  interested  himself  in  the 
lad's  welfare  years  before  he  crossed  the  Western  Ocean  to 
spend  his  last  days  with  the  family  in  Boston. 

8.  In  front  of  City  Hall  stands   Greenough's  statue  of 
Franklin,  erected  in  1856,  Boston's  first  portrait  statue. 

9.  Within  a  stone's  throw  is  the  site  of  James  Franklin's 
printing  office,  where  his  young  brother  learned  the  rudiments 
of  the  printer's  trade.   A  small  bronze  tablet  marks  the  spot 
on  the  corner  of  Franklin  Avenue  and  Court  Street. 

10.  Another  tablet  will  be  found  on  the  site  of  the  birth 
place,  17  Milk  Street,  near  Washington. 

11.  Another  site  of  interest  to  the  lovers  of  Franklin  is  the 
southeast  corner  of  Hanover  and  Union  Streets,  which  marks  the 
spot  where  stood  his  boyhood's  home,  above  his  father's  shop. 

12.  About  No.  339  Washington  Street  is  the  site  of  the 
shop   in   which   Josiah   Franklin   was   doing   business   when 
Benjamin  was  born. 

13.  In  the  Boston  Public  Library,  by  inquiring  in  Bates 
Hall,  one  will  be  shown  two  original  oil  portraits  of  Franklin, 
one  by  Duplessis,  and  the  other  by  Greuze,  both  painted 
while  he  was  resident  at  Passy  near  Paris,  as  representative 
of  the  newly  formed  republic. 

14.  There  is  in  the  Harvard  Memorial  Hall  a  so-called 
portrait  of  Franklin,  said  to  have  been  painted  during  the  year 
he  spent  in  London  as  a  journeyman  printer,  but  there  is 
grave  doubt  about  its  genuineness. 

15.  The  Lawrence  Scientific  School,  Cambridge,  contains 
an  electric  machine  given  to  Harvard  College  by  Franklin. 

[PAGE  7] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BOY 

16.  In  the  library  of  the  Masonic  Temple,  Boston,  is 
preserved  Fisher's  mezzotint  of  Chamberlin's  portrait  of 
Franklin,  on  the  reverse  of  which,  in  Franklin's  hand,  is  the 
inscription,  "For  Mrs.  Dorcas  Stickney  in  Newbury."  Mrs. 
Stickney,  who  was  his  niece,  received  Franklin's  gift  from 
Paris  in  1778,  with  the  word  that  the  sender  considered  it 
his  best  portrait. 


[PAGE  8] 


FRANKLIN   THE    PRINTER 

"F  |  "MIE  New  England  Courant,  No.  80,  From  Monday 
February  4,  to  Monday  February  11,  1723," 
was  received  by  Boston  with  mixed  feelings. 
Many  there  were  who  took  honest  satisfaction  in  the  plucky 
fight  the  little  paper  was  making  for  free  speech.  Others,  of 
the  more  vulgar  sort,  loudly  applauded  its  bald  and  often 
unnecessarily  insulting  flings  at  the  Governor,  the  Council, 
the  ministers,  and  the  church-goers.  These  would  have  taken 
as  great  a  delight  in  a  dog-fight,  but  there  were  many  of 
them,  and  their  laughter  at  the  awkward  position  in  which 
the  paper's  every  move  left  the  dignitaries  was  knowingly 
taken  advantage  of  by  James  Franklin  and  his  apprentice 
brother,  Benjamin.  To  those  who  had  ears  to  hear,  and  there 
were  not  a  few  on  either  side,  this  latest  number  of  the 
Courant  covertly  yet  plainly  said  "Checkmate." 

Official  and  ultra-religious  Boston  was  amazed  and  deeply 
chagrined;  once  again  it  had  been  circumvented.  In  its 
attempt  to  change  the  tone  of  this  exasperating  little  sheet, 
James  Franklin,  its  editor  and  proprietor,  had  been  thrown 
into  prison;  but  the  expected  improvement  was  not  discern 
ible.  In  fact,  those  who  searched  diligently  for  it  were  shocked 
to  find  instead  satirical  arguments  and  eloquent  essays  not 
only  more  candid  and  forceful  than  their  predecessors,  but 
considerably  more  numerous.  One  thing  remained  to  do: 
forthwith  an  order  was  issued  strictly  forbidding  James  Frank 
lin  "to  print  or  publish  the  New  England  Courant,  or  any 
pamphlet,  or  paper  of  the  like  nature,  except  it  be  supervised 
by  the  Secretary  of  this  Province."  In  No.  80,  of  the  Courant, 
James  Franklin  announced  that  this  stipulation  was  so  in 
convenient  and  unprofitable  that  he  had  "entirely  dropt  the 

[  P  A  Q  E   9  ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PRINTER 

undertaking."  The  new  publisher  announced  that  the  Cour- 
ant  was  now  "designed  purely  for  the  Diversion  and  Merriment 
of  the  Reader,"  but  in  a  footnote  the  reader  is  informed  that 
the  new  publisher  is  Benjamin  Franklin!  So  the  authorities, 
in  their  blundering  efforts  to  extract  one  thorn  from  their 
side,  had  but  driven  in  a  worse  one. 

The  seventeen-year-old  editor  and  publisher,  with  unusual 
skill  and  youthful  enthusiasm,  thrust  at  his  antagonists  time 
and  again,  cleverly  parried  the  return  blows,  and  withal  so  suc 
cessfully  manoeuvred  the  affairs  of  the  Courant  that  in  three 
months'  time  its  price  was  increased  and  its  edition  enlarged. 

So  the  strife  went  merrily  on  for  about  six  months,  when 
civil  war  broke  out  in  the  Courant  office  itself,  and  the  Frank 
lin  brothers  parted  in  anger.  By  this  quarrel  Boston  lost  a 
vexatious  printer's  apprentice  and  Philadelphia  gained  a 
master  printer,  whom  his  adopted  city  and,  indeed,  all  America 
accepts  to-day  as  a  sort  of  patron  saint  of  the  craft.  On  his 
deathbed  some  sixty-seven  years  afterward,  Franklin  re 
quested  that  the  printers  of  Philadelphia,  with  their  em 
ployees,  be  given  a  prominent  place  in  his  funeral  procession. 
During  all  the  intervening  years  Franklin  would  have  de 
scribed  himself  as  by  trade  a  printer.  His  will  began:  "I, 
Benjamin  Franklin,  printer,"  and  this  was  no  affectation,  for 
his  interest  in  the  craft  never  slackened. 

Franklin  had  signed  with  his  brother  James  to  serve  him 
nine  years  as  an  apprentice.  Curiously,  this  is  almost  exactly 
the  time  which  he  served  the  trade  as  apprentice  and  journey 
man  together,  in  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  London.  In  the 
spring  of  1728  he  started  in  business  for  himself.  He  had,  in 
all,  five  employers,  his  brother  James  in  Boston,  Samuel 
Keimer  and  Andrew  Bradford  in  Philadelphia,  Palmer  and 
Watts  in  London.  With  the  Englishmen  Franklin  seems  to 
have  had  no  trouble,  but  with  his  fellow-countrymen  he  was 
usually  at  odds;  in  each  quarrel  it  was  a  case  of  diamond  cut 

[PAGE  10] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PRINTER 

diamond,  and  the  young  Bostonian  always  proved  himself 
the  sharper,  although  his  youthful  methods  of  dealing  with 
his  employers  were  not  always  commendable.  As  years  passed, 
his  ideals  became  higher,  and  from  those  with  whom  he  was 
brought  into  contact  through  his  trade  he  picked  some  of  his 
most  valued  friends.  William  Strahan,  the  English  printer, 
John  Walter,  founder  of  The  London  Times,  the  younger 
Fournier,  celebrated  printer  and  typefounder,  and  David 
Hall,  the  journeyman  printer  whom  he  met  at  Watts's  office  in 
London,  afterwards  his  partner  and  successor,  are  examples 
of  members  of  the  trade  with  whom  Franklin  formed  affec 
tionate  and  loyal  friendships,  which  even  the  Revolution  did 
not  disrupt. 

Franklin  had  great  knowledge  of  paper,  ink,  types  and 
presses.  He  took  pleasure  in  such  things  always  and  showed 
an  active  interest  which  resulted  in  many  improvements  that 
materially  advanced  the  art  of  printing.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  the  first  printer  to  attempt  illustrating  a  newspaper,  and 
one  of  the  first  to  use  display  advertisements.  While  in  Paris, 
he  maintained  a  little  private  printing  office,  and  when  he 
returned  to  America,  five  years  before  his  death,  he  brought  a 
press  and  type  as  a  present  for  one  of  his  grandsons.  To-day, 
one  hundred  and  twenty -five  years  after  his  death,  he  remains 
the  one  printer  whose  birthday  is  commemorated  in  America 
by  an  annual  festival. 

In  1728  he  became  a  master  printer.  Although  only 
twenty-two  years  of  age,  he  had  had  a  varied  experience  in 
the  trade  and  had  seen  considerable  of  the  world  in  general. 
The  printing  office  which  he  opened  finally  developed  ten 
branch  offices  in  six  of  the  colonies  and  in  Jamaica,  his  part 
ner  in  each  case  eventually  buying  out  Franklin's  share. 

Exactly  in  the  middle  of  his  life  (late  in  1748),  he  retired 
from  active  business,  his  partner,  David  Hall,  assuming  con 
trol.  Eighteen  years  later,  Hall  became  sole  owner. 

[PAGE  11] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PRINTER 

Franklin  was  in  the  printing  business  forty-eight  years. 
He  served  his  country  the  same  number  of  years  in  various 
capacities  but  he  never  depended  upon  the  Government  for  a 
livelihood. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  Franklin  had  no  great  ambi 
tion  in  his  life.  His  sole  idea  seemed  to  be  to  do  each  day's 
work  as  it  came  to  hand.  He  was  diligent  in  business  and 
equally  diligent  in  affairs  of  state,  hence  by  double  right  he 
stood  before  kings  and  was  honored  of  them. 


In  the  second  painting  is  shown  a  typical  early  eighteenth 
century  printing  office.  Franklin,  in  paper  cap  and  leather 
apron,  is  working  the  hand-press.  It  is  of  interest  to  know 
that  the  press  in  the  painting  was  painted  from  the  identical 
press  on  which  the  young  American  used  his  muscles  in 
Watts's  printing  establishment  in  London.  It  is  now  in  the 
Smithsonian  Institute  in  Washington.  The  type  cases  are 
practically  the  same  as  those  in  use  to-day.  The  columns  of 
type  were  locked  up  in  iron  chases  on  slabs  of  smooth  stone, 
and  the  inking  was  done  by  means  of  padded  leather  balls 
with  ink  taken  from  other  slabs  of  stone.  The  slabs  of  iron 
used  for  these  purposes  to-day  retain  the  name  of  "stones." 
When  the  form  was  ready  to  print  from,  it  was  lifted  to  the 
bed  of  the  press  and  here  inked.  The  paper,  which  had 
already  been  dampened,  was  laid  upon  the  inked  form  and 
covered  with  its  "blanket."  The  bed  carrying  this  form  was 
then  slid  under  the  suspended  iron  slab,  which  was  forced 
down  by  means  of  a  screw  and  the  long  lever.  The  weight  was 
then  lifted,  the  bed  run  out,  the  "blanket"  taken  off,  the 
printed  sheet  removed  and  hung  up  to  dry;  the  form  was  re- 
inked  and  the  whole  process  repeated  indefinitely.  The  ap 
prentice  on  the  right  is  getting  the  ink  into  proper  condition 
to  use  upon  the  form  as  soon  as  Franklin  will  have  com- 

[PAGE   12] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PRINTER 

pleted  the  impression  already  in  the  press.  The  pegs  on  the 
uprights  of  the  press  behind  the  apprentice  are  used  for  hold 
ing  the  ink  rolls  when  not  in  use.  The  large  lye  pot  in  the  lower 
right-hand  corner  was  used  for  washing  the  type. 

The  long  hair  gathered  up  loosely  at  the  neck  gives  the 
men  a  rather  feminine  appearance.  Although  no  women  are 
shown  in  this  printing  office,  they  were  employed  as  composi 
tors  at  this  period.  The  daughters  of  James  Franklin  assisted 
their  widowed  mother  in  the  printing  office  which  their  father 
had  established  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  while  their  younger  brother 
was  learning  the  business  in  Philadelphia  in  the  establishment 
of  his  Uncle  Benjamin.  When  James  Franklin  set  up  his 
office  in  Newport,  he  carried  thither  the  press  on  which 
Benjamin  had  worked  in  Boston.  Many  years  after,  it  was 
returned  to  Boston,  and  may  be  seen  to-day  in  the  Old  State 
House  on  State  Street,  which  is  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of 
the  spot  on  Queen  (now  Court)  Street,  where  the  Franklin 
Printing  Office  once  stood. 


[PAGE  13] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BUILDER  OF  FORTS 

WHEN   the  news   of    Braddock's  humiliating  defeat 
reached  Philadelphia  in  July,  1755,  Governor  Morris 
entreated  Colonel  Dunbar,  who  was  in  command  of 
what  was  left  of  the  British  regulars,  to  hold  the  enemy  in 
check  at  the  frontier  until  he  could  raise  and  send  reinforce 
ments  of  colonials.    But  Dunbar  and  his  "seasoned  troops" 
were  headed  for  Philadelphia,  "on  the  double  quick,"  and 
with  one  accord  they  decided  to  keep  right  on.    So  to  Phila 
delphia  they  came,  leaving  the  whole  country  at  the  mercy 
of  the  enemy. 

Now  Governor  Morris  loved  a  dispute  as  a  schoolboy 
loves  a  game  of  ball.  He  had  promised  Franklin  to  refrain 
from  this  little  diversion  while  Governor.  Nevertheless  he  was 
soon  enjoying  himself  to  the  full  in  this  particular  regard. 
No  more  unfortunate  juncture  could  have  been  found  for 
indulging  his  weakness  than  just  after  Braddock's  defeat. 
The  whole  colony  was  in  a  panic  and  needed  careful,  cool- 
headed  leadership.  Governor  Morris,  however,  had  deter 
mined  to  stick  to  the  letter  of  his  instructions  from  the  pro 
prietaries  in  England  whether  he  ruined  the  colony  or  not, 
and  when  the  question  arose  as  to  who  should  pay  the  troops 
he  proposed  sending  to  the  frontier,  he  said  one  thing  and 
the  Assembly  said  another.  Spirited  letters  flew  back  and 
forth,  those  from  the  Assembly  to  the  Governor  being  written 
by  Franklin.  Yet  Franklin  continued  to  be  on  such  friendly 
terms  with  His  Excellency  as  frequently  to  dine  with  him. 
Public-spirited  citizens  now  and  again  proposed  a  compromise, 
but  to  no  purpose.  Time  even  was  taken  to  send  despatches 
to  England  regarding  the  deadlock. 

[PAGE  15] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BUILDER  OF  FORTS 

In  September  and  October,  while  the  wrangling  went 
hopelessly  on,  Indians  were  burning  and  killing  in  many  parts 
of  the  colony;  whole  settlements  were  wiped  out  and  families 
scalped  within  eighty  miles  of  Philadelphia.  At  last,  the 
proprietaries  subscribed  £5,000  toward  the  payment  of  the 
troops  and  a  truce  was  patched  up  between  the  Governor  and 
the  Assembly,  the  much-needed  money  was  forthcoming,  and 
Franklin  was  appointed  one  of  seven  commissioners  to  have 
it  in  charge.  Late  in  November,  the  Moravian  settlements, 
in  which  Count  Zinzendorf ,  the  heroic  missionary,  had  labored 
so  earnestly,  were  attacked.  One  village,  Giiadenhutten,  was 
entirely  burned  and  all  the  people  but  two  killed.  There  was 
panic  on  all  sides,  the  result  largely  of  the  obstinacy  of  Gov 
ernor  Morris.  Yet  at  this  juncture  the  Governor  calmly  asked 
Franklin  if  he  would  go  to  the  Moravian  settlements  in  the 
Lehigh  Valley  and  protect  the  people;  Franklin  magnani 
mously  accepted  the  Governor's  commission.  This  was  one 
of  the  numberless  times  when,  at  a  sacrifice  of  his  own  inter 
ests,  he  willingly  served  his  fellows.  He  nowhere  shows 
himself  a  nobler  man  than  when,  about  the  middle  of  Decem 
ber,  he  set  out  with  his  five  hundred  and  sixty  men. 

The  account  of  the  little  expedition  under  General  Frank 
lin  cannot  be  better  told  than  in  his  own  words,  taken  from 
his  Autobiography. 

"While  several  companies  in  the  city  and  country  were 
forming,  and  learning  their  exercise,  the  Governor  prevailed 
with  me  to  take  charge  of  our  north-western  frontier,  which 
was  infested  by  the  enemy,  and  provide  for  the  defence  of 
the  inhabitants  by  raising  troops  and  building  a  line  of  forts. 
I  undertook  this  military  business,  though  I  did  not  conceive 
myself  well  qualified  for  it.  He  gave  me  a  commission  with 
full  powers,  and  a  parcel  of  blank  commissions  for  officers,  to 
be  given  to  whom  I  thought  fit.  I  had  but  little  difficulty  in 
raising  men,  having  soon  five  hundred  and  sixty  under  my 

[PAGE  16] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BUILDER  OF  FORTS 

command.  My  son,  who  had  in  the  preceding  war  been  an 
officer  in  the  army  raised  against  Canada,  was  my  aide-de 
camp,  and  of  great  use  to  me.  The  Indians  had  burned 
Guadenhut,  a  village  settled  by  the  Moravians,  and  mas 
sacred  the  inhabitants;  but  the  place  was  thought  a  good 
situation  for  one  of  the  forts. 

"In  order  to  march  thither,  I  assembled  the  companies 
at  Bethlehem,  the  chief  establishment  of  these  people.  I  was 
surprised  to  find  it  in  so  good  a  posture  of  defence;  the  de 
struction  of  Guadenhut  had  made  them  apprehend  danger. 
The  principal  buildings  were  defended  by  a  stockade;  they 
had  purchased  a  quantity  of  arms  and  ammunition  from  New 
York,  and  had  even  placed  quantities  of  small  paving-stones 
between  the  windows  of  their  high  stone  houses,  for  their 
women  to  throw  down  upon  the  heads  of  any  Indians  that 
should  attempt  to  force  into  them.  The  armed  brethren,  too, 
kept  watch  and  relieved  each  other  on  guard,  as  methodically 
as  in  any  garrison  town.  .  .  .  Common  sense,  aided  by  present 
danger,  will  sometimes  be  too  strong  for  whimsical  opinions. 

"It  was  the  beginning  of  January  when  we  set  out  upon 
this  business  of  building  forts.  I  sent  one  detachment  towards 
the  Minisink,  with  instructions  to  erect  one  for  the  security 
of  that  upper  part  of  the  country;  and  another  to  the  lower 
part,  with  similar  instructions;  and  I  concluded  to  go  myself 
with  the  rest  of  my  force  to  Guadenhut,  where  a  fort  was 
thought  more  immediately  necessary.  The  Moravians  pro 
cured  me  five  wagons  for  our  tools,  stores,  and  baggage.  .  .  . 

"We  had  not  marched  many  miles,  before  it  began  to  rain, 
and  it  continued  raining  all  day;  there  were  no  habitations 
on  the  road  to  shelter  us,  till  we  arrived  near  night  at  the  house 
of  a  German,  where,  and  in  his  barn,  we  were  all  huddled  to 
gether,  as  wet  as  water  could  make  us.  It  was  well  we  were 
not  attacked  on  our  march,  for  our  arms  were  of  the  most 
ordinary  sort,  and  our  men  could  not  keep  the  locks  of  their 

[PAGE  1  7  J 


FRANKLIN  THE  BUILDER  OF  FORTS 

guns  dry.  The  Indians  are  dexterous  in  contrivances  for  that 
purpose,  which  we  had  not.  .  .  . 

"The  next  day  being  fair,  we  continued  our  march,  and 
arrived  at  the  desolated  Guadenhut.  There  was  a  mill  near, 
round  which  were  left  several  pine  boards,  with  which  we 
soon  hutted  ourselves;  an  operation  the  more  necessary  at 
that  inclement  season,  as  we  had  no  tents.  Our  first  work  was 
to  bury  more  effectually  the  dead  we  found  there,  who  had 
been  half  interred  by  the  country  people. 

"The  next  morning  our  fort  was  planned  and  marked  out, 
the  circumference  measuring  four  hundred  and  fifty -five  feet, 
which  would  require  as  many  palisades  to  be  made,  one  within 
another,  of  a  foot  diameter  each.  Our  axes,  of  which  we  had 
seventy,  were  immediately  set  to  work  to  cut  down  trees; 
and,  our  men  being  dexterous  in  the  use  of  them,  great  des 
patch  was  made.  Seeing  the  trees  fall  so  fast,  I  had  the  curi 
osity  to  look  at  my  watch  when  two  men  began  to  cut  at  a 
pine;  in  six  minutes  they  had  it  upon  the  ground,  and  I  found 
it  of  fourteen  inches  diameter.  Each  pine  made  three  pali 
sades  of  eighteen  feet  long,  pointed  at  one  end.  While  these 
were  preparing,  our  other  men  dug  a  trench  all  round,  of  three 
feet  deep,  in  which  the  palisades  were  to  be  planted;  and,  the 
bodies  being  taken  off  our  wagons,  and  the  fore  and  hind 
wheels  separated,  by  taking  out  the  pin  which  united  the  two 
parts  of  the  perch,  we  had  ten  carriages,  with  two  horses  each, 
to  bring  the  palisades  from  the  woods  to  the  spot.  When  they 
were  set  up,  our  carpenters  built  a  platform  of  boards  all  round 
within,  about  six  feet  high,  for  the  men  to  stand  on  when  to 
fire  through  the  loop-holes.  We  had  one  swivel-gun,  which  we 
mounted  on  one  of  the  angles,  and  fired  it  as  soon  as  fixed,  to 
let  the  Indians  know,  if  any  were  within  hearing,  that  we  had 
such  pieces;  and  thus  our  fort,  if  that  name  may  be  given  to 
so  miserable  a  stockade,  was  finished  in  a  week,  though  it 
rained  so  hard  every  other  day,  that  the  men  could  not  work. 

[PAGE  1  8] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BUILDER  OF  FORTS 

"This  gave  me  occasion  to  observe,  that,  when  men  are 
employed,  they  are  best  contented;  for  on  the  days  they 
worked  they  were  good-natured  and  cheerful,  and,  with  the 
consciousness  of  having  done  a  good  day's  work,  they  spent 
the  evening  jollily;  but  on  our  idle  days  they  were  mutinous 
and  quarrelsome,  finding  fault  with  the  pork,  the  bread,  &c., 
and  were  continually  in  bad  humor.  .  .  . 

"This  kind  of  fort,  however  contemptible,  is  a  sufficient 
defence  against  Indians,  who  have  no  cannon.  Finding  our 
selves  now  posted  securely,  and  having  a  place  to  retreat  to 
on  occasion,  we  ventured  out  in  parties  to  scour  the  adjacent 
country.  We  met  with  no  Indians,  but  we  found  the  places 
on  the  neighboring  hills,  where  they  had  lain  to  watch  our 
proceedings.  .  .  . 

"We  had  for  our  chaplain  a  zealous  Presbyterian  minister, 
Mr.  Beatty,  who  complained  to  me  that  the  men  did  not 
generally  attend  his  prayers  and  exhortations.  When  they 
enlisted  they  were  promised,  besides  pay  and  provisions,  a 
gill  of  rum  a  day,  which  was  punctually  served  out  to  them, 
half  in  the  morning  and  the  other  half  in  the  evening,  and  I 
observed  they  were  punctual  in  attending  to  receive  it;  upon 
which  I  said  to  Mr.  Beatty,  'It  is  perhaps  below  the  dignity 
of  your  profession  to  act  as  steward  of  the  rum,  but  if  you 
were  only  to  distribute  it  out  after  prayers  you  would  have 
them  all  about  you.'  He  liked  the  thought,  undertook  the 
task,  and,  with  the  help  of  a  few  hands  to  measure  out  the 
liquor,  executed  it  to  satisfaction,  and  never  were  prayers 
more  generally  and  more  punctually  attended.  So  that  I 
think  this  method  preferable  to  the  punishment  inflicted  by 
some  military  laws  for  non-attendance  on  divine  service. 

"I  had  hardly  finished  this  business  and  got  my  fort  well 
stored  with  provisions  when  I  received  a  letter  from  the 
Governor,  acquainting  me  that  he  had  called  the  Assembly, 
and  wished  my  attendance  there  if  the  posture  of  affairs  on 

[PAGE  19] 


FRANKLIN  THE  BUILDER  OF  FORTS 

the  frontiers  was  such  that  my  remaining  there  was  no  longer 
necessary.  My  friends,  too,  of  the  Assembly  pressing  me  by 
their  letters  to  be,  if  possible,  at  the  meeting,  and  my  three 
intended  forts  being  now  completed  and  the  inhabitants  con 
tented  to  remain  on  their  farms  under  that  protection,  I 
resolved  to  return;  the  more  willingly  as  a  New  England 
officer,  Colonel  Clapham,  experienced  in  Indian  war,  being  on 
a  visit  to  our  establishment,  consented  to  accept  the  command. 
I  gave  him  a  commission,  and,  parading  the  garrison,  had  it 
read  before  them,  and  introduced  him  to  them  as  an  officer 
who,  from  his  skill  in  military  affairs,  was  much  more  fit  to 
command  them  than  myself,  and  giving  them  a  little  exhorta 
tion,  took  my  leave.  I  was  escorted  as  far  as  Bethlehem, 
where  I  rested  a  few  days  to  recover  from  the  fatigue  I  had 
undergone.  The  first  night,  lying  in  a  good  bed,  I  could  hardly 
sleep,  it  was  so  different  from  my  hard  lodging  on  the  floor 
of  a  hut  at  Guadenhut  with  only  a  blanket  or  two." 


Franklin,  then  a  man  of  forty -nine,  is  shown  in  the  third 
painting  personally  superintending  the  erection  of  one  of  three 
forts  in  the  Lehigh  Valley,  above  Bethlehem,  made  necessary 
by  the  incursions  of  hostile  Indians.  The  weather  was  cold  and 
rainy  during  the  building  of  the  forts;  nevertheless,  Indians 
sullenly  watched  the  process  from  a  safe  distance.  Franklin 
here,  as  elsewhere,  got  pleasure  from  the  skilful  manner  in 
which  his  men  worked,  and  carefully  records  the  facts.  He 
and  all  his  men  carried  flint-lock  guns,  although  they  were 
usually  too  wet  to  be  of  any  real  service. 

Mr.  Mills  visited  the  site  of  Fort  Allen,  and  made  careful 
studies  of  the  contour  of  the  hills.  He  found  nothing  else  as 
it  had  been  in  Franklin's  time,  and  no  remains  of  the  fort 
which  Franklin  helped  build,  except  the  old  well,  locally 
known  as  Franklin's  Well.  The  Fort  Allen  House,  Weissport, 
now  occupies  the  site  of  the  old  fort. 

[PAGE  20] 


FRANKLIN  THE  LIBRARIAN 

THE  first  library  in  America  that  could  in  any  sense 
be  called  public  was  that  formed  of  the  books  brought 
from  England  by  John  Harvard  and  left  by  him  to 
the  college  which  now  bears  his  name.  This  was  in  1638. 
Just  about  a  century  later,  in  1731,  Franklin  founded  what 
he  considered  "the  mother  of  all  the  North  American  sub 
scription  libraries,"  the  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia,  of 
glorious  memory.  Unknown  to  Franklin,  a  subscription  library 
had  been  founded  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  before  this 
date,  but  it  did  not  live  and  so  far  as  is  known  influenced  the 
founding  of  no  others.  During  the  years  between  the  founding 
of  the  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia  and  the  breaking 
out  of  the  Revolution,  many  other  libraries  of  the  same  order 
sprang  up,  in  Philadelphia  first,  and  then  in  various  other 
parts  of  the  country. 

After  the  close  of  the  war,  the  good  work  went  on,  ever 
broadening  in  character  and  spreading  throughout  the  states 
of  the  Union  —  until  in  1854,  the  great  library  movement 
bore  fruit  in  the  founding  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  the 
first  free  public  library  in  America. 

The  library  of  Harvard  College  perhaps  influenced  the 
founding  elsewhere  of  a  few  other  collections  of  books  for  the 
use  of  undergraduates.  But  it  is  to  Franklin  and  the  library 
which  he  founded  that  we  must  look  for  the  germ  of  the 
modern  library  idea,  that  which  came  to  a  full  fruition  first 
in  the  Boston  Public  Library,  the  policy  of  which  has  been 
followed,  in  all  its  main  features,  by  all  the  free  public  libraries 
of  the  English-speaking  world. 

It  is  fortunate  that  we  have  a  short  account  of  the  incep 
tion  and  beginning  of  the  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia, 

[PAGE  2  1  ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  LIBRARIAN 

in  the  words  of   the  founder  himself.    In  his  Autobiography, 
Franklin  says: 

"At  the  time  I  established  myself  in  Pennsylvania,  there 
was  not  a  good  bookseller's  shop  in  any  of  the  colonies  to  the 
southward  of  Boston.  In  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  the 
printers  were  indeed  stationers;  but  they  sold  only  paper, 
almanacs,  ballads,  and  a  few  common  school-books.  Those 
who  loved  reading  were  obliged  to  send  for  their  books  from 
England;  the  members  of  the  Junto  had  each  a  few.  We 
had  left  the  ale-house,  where  we  first  met,  and  hired  a  room  to 
hold  our  club  in.  I  proposed  that  we  should  all  of  us  bring 
our  books  to  that  room,  where  they  would  not  only  be  ready 
to  consult  in  our  conferences,  but  become  a  common  benefit, 
each  of  us  being  at  liberty  to  borrow  such  as  he  wished  to  read 
at  home.  This  was  accordingly  done,  and  for  some  time 
contented  us. 

"Finding  the  advantage  of  this  little  collection,  I  proposed 
to  render  the  benefit  from  the  books  more  common,  by  com 
mencing  a  public  subscription  library.  I  drew  a  sketch  of 
the  plan  and  rules  that  would  be  necessary  [early  in  1731] 
and  got  a  skilful  conveyancer,  Mr.  Charles  Brockden,  to  put 
the  whole  in  form  of  articles  of  agreement  to  be  subscribed; 
by  which  each  subscriber  engaged  to  pay  a  certain  sum  down 
for  the  first  purchase  of  the  books,  and  an  annual  contribution 
for  increasing  them.  So  few  were  the  readers  at  that  time  in 
Philadelphia,  and  the  majority  of  us  so  poor,  that  I  was  not 
able  without  great  industry  to  find  more  than  fifty  persons, 
mostly  young  tradesmen,  willing  to  pay  down  for  this  pur 
pose  forty  shillings  each,  and  ten  shillings  per  annum.  With 
this  little  fund  we  began.  [The  first  meeting  of  the  Library 
Company  of  Philadelphia  was  held  Nov.  8,  1731.]  The  books 
were  imported.  [The  following  is  a  list  of  the  books  com 
prised  in  the  first  importation.  They  arrived  from  England 
in  October,  1732: 

[PAGE  22] 


FRANKLIN  THE  LIBRARIAN 


Puffendorf  s  Introduc'n.    8  vo. 

Dr.  Howel's  History  of  ye  World. 
3  yols.  Fo. 

Rapin's  History  of  England.  12 
vols.  8  vo. 

Salmon's  Modern  History. 

Vertot's  Revolutions. 

Plutarch's  Lives  in  small  vol. 

Stanley's  Lives  of  ye  Philosophers. 

Annals  of  Tacitus  by  Gordon. 

Collection  of  Voyages.     6  vols. 

Atlas  Geogra.     5  vols.     4  to. 

Gordon's  Grammar. 

Brightland's  English  Grammar. 

Greenwood's      "  " 

Johnson's  History  of  Animals. 

Architect  by  Andw.  Palladio. 

Evelyn's  Parallels  of  the  ancient 
and  modern  Architecture. 

Bradley's  Imprpvmt.  of  Hus 
bandry,  and  his  other  Books  of 
Gardening. 

Perkinson's  Herbal. 

Helvicius's  Chronology. 

Wood's  Institutes. 

Dechall's  Euclid. 

L'Hospital's  Conic  Sections.   4  to. 


Hayes  upon  Fluxions. 

Keil's  Astronomical  Lectures. 

Drake's  Anatomy. 

Sidney  on  Government. 

Cato's  Letters. 

Sieurs  DuPort  Royal  moral  essays. 

Crousay's  Art  of  Thinking. 

Spectator. 

Guardian. 

Tatler. 

Puffendorf's  Laws  of  Nature,  &c. 

Addison's  Works  in  12  mo. 

Memorable  Things  of  Socrates. 

Turkish  Spy. 

Abridgmt.  of  Phil:  Trans:  5  vols. 

4  to. 
Gravesend's  Nat.  Philos.  2  vols. 

8  vo. 

Boerhaave's  Chemistry. 
The  Compleat  Tradesman. 
Bailey's  Dictionary  —  the  best. 
Homer's  Iliad  and  Odyssey. 
Bayle's  Critical  Dictionary. 
Dryden's  Virgil. 
Ozanam's  Course  of  Mathem.    5 

vols. 
Catalogues. 


A  number  of  these  books  are  still  upon  the  shelves  of 
the  Library.]  The  Library  was  opened  one  day  in  the  week 
for  lending  them  to  subscribers,  on  their  promissory  notes 
to  pay  double  the  value  if  not  duly  returned.  The  institution 
soon  manifested  its  utility,  was  imitated  by  other  towns, 
and  in  other  provinces.  The  libraries  were  augmented  by 
donations,  reading  became  fashionable;  and  our  people,  hav 
ing  no  public  amusements  to  divert  their  attention  from  study, 
became  better  acquainted  with  books,  and  in  a  few  years  were 
observed  by  strangers  to  be  better  instructed  and  more  in 
telligent  than  people  of  the  same  rank  generally  are  in  other 
countries.  .  .  . 

"This  was  the  mother  of  all  the  North  American  sub 
scription  libraries,  now  so  numerous;  it  is  become  a  great 

[PAGE  23] 


FRANKLIN  THE  LIBRARIAN 

thing  itself,  and  continually  goes  on  increasing.  These  libraries 
have  improved  the  general  conversation  of  the  Americans, 
made  the  common  tradesmen  and  farmers  as  intelligent  as 
most  gentlemen  from  other  countries,  and  perhaps  have  con 
tributed  in  some  degree  to  the  stand  so  generally  made 
throughout  the  colonies  in  defence  of  their  privileges.  .  .  . 

"This  library  afforded  me  the  means  of  improvement  by 
constant  study,  for  which  I  set  apart  an  hour  or  two  each 
day,  and  thus  repaired  in  some  degree  the  loss  of  the  learned 
education  my  father  once  intended  for  me.  Reading  was  the 
only  amusement  I  allowed  myself.  I  spent  no  time  in  taverns, 
games,  or  frolics  of  any  kind ;  and  my  industry  in  my  business 
continued  as  indefatigable  as  it  was  necessary." 

In  the  Minute  Books  of  the  organization  there  is  the  fol 
lowing  entry  dated  December  11,  1732.  "B.  Franklin  was 
asked  what  his  charge  was  for  printing  a  catalogue  .  .  .  for 
each  subscriber;  and  his  answer  was  that  he  designed  them 
for  presents,  and  would  take  no  charge  for  them." 

Many  of  the  original  shares  are  still  owned  by  descendants 
of  those  who  first  signed  the  Articles  of  Association.  Franklin's 
share  is  now  (1914)  in  the  name  of  Thomas  Hewson  Bache,  a 
descendant,  the  fourth  owner  since  Franklin. 

The  success  and  permanence  of  the  Library  Company  of 
Philadelphia  form  but  one  of  the  many  monuments  to  the  good 
common  sense  of  its  founder. 


In  the  painting  of  the  Library,  Mr.  Mills  has  represented 
Franklin  as  librarian,  which  position  he  held  for  three  months 
during  the  second  year  of  the  Library  Company's  existence. 
He  is  glancing  up  from  the  book  he  has  been  examining  with 
a  friend,  to  speak  with  two  persons,  apparently  strangers, 
who  have  just  entered  the  room.  Franklin,  although  but 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  is  wearing  a  wig,  as  are  all  the  other 

[PAGE  24] 


FRANKLIN  THE  LIBRARIAN 

men  in  the  room,  young  and  old.  At  this  time  the  custom 
among  men  of  covering  their  own  hair  with  wigs  was  well- 
nigh  universal. 

The  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia  as  here  shown  occu 
pies  one  small  room  in  a  private  house,  probably  the  same  in 
which  the  Library  opened  a  few  months  before,  Mr.  R.  Grace's 
house  in  Jones  Alley  (also  called  Pewter  Platter  Alley)  and 
now  known  as  Church  Street.  Since  1790  the  Library  has 
owned  its  own  building.  Its  two  hundred  and  forty  thousand 
volumes  and  its  many  invaluable  historic  relics  are  now 
housed  in  two  large  modern  buildings. 


[PAGE  25] 


FRANKLIN   THE   EDITOR 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

WHEN  Franklin,  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  put  under 
the  office  door  of  the  Courant  a  contribution  signed 
"Silence  Dogood,"  he  began  his  editorial  career. 
A  few  months  afterward  the  'prentice  boy  was  acting  editor, 
and  soon  actual,  although  irresponsible,  editor  of  Boston's 
little  hornet  of  a  newspaper.  He  did  his  best  to  make  its 
sting  felt  wherever  it  circulated,  in  which  matter  he  followed 
the  example  and  policy  of  his  brother.  But  he  did  not  long 
retain  this  rather  anomalous  position,  and  it  was  not  until  six 
eventful  years  had  passed  that  he  earnestly  began  to  edit  a 
paper  for  the  public  good.  By  this  time  he  had  learned  that, 
to  use  irony  and  satire  effectively,  the  sting  should  usually  be 
extracted. 

The  manner  in  which  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette  came  into 
Franklin's  possession  is  interesting.  He  had  resolved  to  start 
a  newspaper  in  opposition  to  Bradford's  Mercury,  and  inno 
cently  enough  mentioned  the  fact  to  one  of  the  workmen  of 
another  printing  office.  The  man  told  his  master,  Samuel 
Keimer,  writh  whom  Franklin  himself  had  worked.  Keimer 
thought  the  idea  a  good  one,  and,  to  Franklin's  disgust, 
promptly  started  one  of  his  own.  In  doing  this,  however,  he 
reckoned  without  his  host.  Franklin  in  that  cool,  almost 
cruel,  way  of  his,  looked  over  the  ground  and  decided  to  use 
the  Mercury  to  kill  the  Gazette.  He  forthwith  began  a  series 
of  humorous  communications,  judiciously  signed  "The  Busy 
Body,"  which  Bradford  willingly  accepted  and  published  in 
the  Mercury.  They  attracted  wide  attention.  By  this  means 
the  subscription  list  of  the  Mercury  ran  up,  while  there  was  a 
corresponding  lowering  of  that  of  the  Gazette.  Keimer  tried 

[PAGE  27] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

to  reply  in  kind,  but  he  was  no  match  for  Franklin,  and  after 
being  burlesqued  unmercifully  for  a  few  months  he  gave  it 
up  and  left  the  city.  Franklin  then  bought  the  Gazette.  With 
No.  40  (1729),  its  new  career  began  under  a  master  hand  that 
eventually  made  it  the  best  and  most  powerful  newspaper  in 
the  colonies.  He  carefully  excluded  all  personal  abuse  and 
everything  of  a  controversial  nature;  he  introduced  much 
humor;  broad  as  it  sometimes  was,  it  never  had  in  it  that 
other  objectionable  quality,  a  sharp  sting.  So  with  the  hoax 
idea,  of  which  he  made  constant  use,  everybody  could  laugh 
and  no  one  felt  hurt.  In  fact,  Franklin  made  his  paper  stand 
for  good  citizenship  and  brotherly  love. 

The  Gazette  was  a  single  sheet,  which,  when  folded,  meas 
ured  but  twelve  by  eighteen  inches,  and  it  was  issued  only 
twice  a  week,  but  it  contained  "the  freshest  advices,  foreign 
and  domestic,"  articles  taken  from  the  English  press,  anec 
dotes,  and  advertisements  galore.  When  there  was  a  shortage 
in  a  column,  Franklin  promptly  set  up  a  little  squib,  com 
posing  it  as  he  handled  the  type.  If  news  was  short,  or  there 
was  no  European  article  suitable  for  use,  the  versatile  editor 
wrote  a  long  essay  in  his  striking  style,  modelled  after  the 
diction  of  Cotton  Mather  or  the  Spectator  essayists.  This 
was  a  sort  of  editorial  work  not  known  now,  but  it  had  its 
compensations.  Perhaps  no  contributor  or  editor  ever  had 
so  little  trouble  in  getting  his  articles  into  print,  so  little  an 
noyance  in  having  his  contributions  cut,  so  little  worry  from 
bad  proof-reading.  Franklin  knew  exactly  what  was  wanted, 
and  the  amount  was  measured  by  the  hole  in  the  form,  so 
that  not  a  word  too  much  was  set  up.  This  "padding,"  usu 
ally  the  poorest  part  of  a  paper,  was  in  the  Gazette  the  best. 
It  was  never  revised,  or  even  read  in  proof,  but  it  was  found 
to  have  a  peculiar  value  to  its  readers,  and  it  made  Franklin's 
paper  famous.  Talk  of  thrift !  Was  there  ever  a  better  example 
of  it? 

[PAGE  28] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

And  this  was  not  all.  Franklin  believed  in  advertising; 
the  Gazette  was  the  best  advertising  medium  in  the  country; 
he  had  a  thrifty  wife  who  could  tend  a  little  shop  while  he 
edited  his  paper.  These  fortunate  circumstances  were  made 
to  work  one  into  the  other.  The  little  shop  at  the  "new 
printing  office  near  the  market"  was  stocked  with  things  to 
be  advertised:  books,  stationery,  soap,  lampblack,  ink,  rags, 
feathers,  coffee,  and  sometimes  even  sack.  Franklin's  editing, 
then,  made  his  paper  sell;  because  his  paper  sold,  the  adver 
tisements  were  read;  because  the  advertisements  were  read, 
his  little  shop  throve. 

Three  years  after  Franklin  had  acquired  the  Gazette  he 
began  to  issue  an  Almanac,  which  stands  to-day  as  the  most 
famous  and  valuable  of  this  class  of  publications.  In  his 
Autobiography  Franklin  says: 

"In  1732  I  first  published  my  Almanac,  under  the  name  of 
Richard  Saunders;  it  was  continued  by  me  about  twenty- 
five  years,  and  commonly  called  Poor  Richard's  Almanac.  I 
endeavoured  to  make  it  both  entertaining  and  useful,  and  it 
accordingly  came  to  be  in  such  demand,  that  I  reaped  con 
siderable  profit  from  it;  vending  annually  near  ten  thousand. 
And  observing  that  it  was  generally  read,  scarce  any  neigh 
borhood  in  the  province  being  without  it,  I  considered  it  as  a 
proper  vehicle  for  conveying  instruction  among  the  common 
people,  who  bought  scarcely  any  other  books.  I  therefore 
filled  all  the  little  spaces,  that  occurred  between  the  remark 
able  days  in  the  Calendar,  with  proverbial  sentences,  chiefly 
such  as  inculcated  industry  and  frugality,  as  the  means  of 
procuring  wealth,  and  thereby  securing  virtue;  it  being  more 
difficult  for  a  man  in  want  to  act  always  honestly,  as,  to  use 
here  one  of  those  proverbs,  it  is  hard  for  an  empty  sack  to 
stand  upright. 

"I  considered  my  newspaper,  also,  as  another  means  of 
communicating  instruction,  and  in  that  view  frequently 

[PAGE  29] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

reprinted  in  it  extracts  from  the  Spectator,  and  other  moral 
writers;  and  sometimes  published  little  pieces  of  my  own, 
which  had  been  first  composed  for  reading  in  our  Junto.  Of 
these  are  a  Socratic  dialogue,  tending  to  prove  that,  whatever 
might  be  his  parts  and  abilities,  a  vicious  man  could  not 
properly  be  called  a  man  of  sense;  and  a  discourse  on  self- 
denial,  showing  that  virtue  was  not  secure,  till  its  practice 
became  a  habitude,  and  was  free  from  the  opposition  of  con 
trary  inclinations.  These  may  be  found  in  the  papers  about 
the  beginning  of  1735. 

"In  the  conduct  of  my  newspaper,  I  carefully  excluded  all 
libelling  and  personal  abuse,  which  is  of  late  years  become 
so  disgraceful  to  our  country.  Whenever  I  was  solicited  to 
insert  anything  of  that  kind,  and  the  writers  pleaded,  as  they 
generally  did,  the  liberty  of  the  press;  and  that  a  newspaper 
was  like  a  stage-coach,  in  which  any  one  who  would  pay  had 
a  right  to  a  place;  my  answer  was,  that  I  would  print  the 
piece  separately  if  desired,  and  the  author  might  have  as  many 
copies  as  he  pleased  to  distribute  himself;  but  that  I  would 
not  take  upon  me  to  spread  his  detraction;  and  that,  having 
contracted  with  my  subscribers  to  furnish  them  with  what 
might  be  either  useful  or  entertaining,  I  could  not  fill  their 
papers  with  private  altercation,  in  which  they  had  no  con 
cern,  without  doing  them  manifest  injustice.  Now,  many  of 
our  printers  make  no  scruple  of  gratifying  the  malice  of  indi 
viduals,  by  false  accusations  of  the  fairest  characters  among 
ourselves,  augmenting  animosity  even  to  the  producing  of 
duels;  and  are,  moreover,  so  indiscreet  as  to  print  scurrilous 
reflections  on  the  government  of  neighboring  states,  and  even 
on  the  conduct  of  our  best  national  allies,  which  may  be 
attended  with  the  most  pernicious  consequences.  These  things 
I  mention  as  a  caution  to  young  printers,  and  that  they  may 
be  encouraged  not  to  pollute  their  presses,  and  disgrace  their 
profession  by  such  infamous  practices,  but  refuse  steadily;  as 

[PAGE  SO] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

they  may  see  by  my  example,  that  such  a  course  of  conduct 
will  not  on  the  whole  be  injurious  to  their  interests." 

As  with  the  starting  of  his  newspaper,  so  also,  when  Frank 
lin  began  his  almanac,  there  was  a  rival  to  be  subdued.  He 
took  an  extraordinary,  though  not  original,  method  of  divert 
ing  attention  from  the  old  to  the  new  almanac.  The  new  one 
was  supposed  to  be  humorous,  although  one  man  must  have 
found  it  anything  but  that.  Franklin  says  in  the  preface  that 
long  ago  he  would  have  given  the  world  an  almanac,  but  for 
the  fear  of  injuring  his  friend  (?)  and  fellow-student,  Titan 
Leeds. 

"But  this  obstacle  (I  am  far  from  speaking  it  with  pleas 
ure)  is  soon  to  be  removed,  since  inexorable  death,  who  was 
never  known  to  respect  merit,  has  already  prepared  the  mortal 
dart,  the  fatal  sister  has  already  extended  her  destroying 
shears,  and  that  ingenious  man  must  soon  be  taken  from  us. 
He  dies,  by  my  calculation,  made  at  his  request,  on  October 
17,  1733,  3  ho.,  29  m.,  P.  M.,  at  the  very  instant  of  the  d  of 
o  and  $  .  By  his  own  calculation,  he  will  survive  till  the 
26th  of  the  same  month.  This  small  difference  between  us, 
we  have  disputed  whenever  we  have  met  these  nine  years 
past;  but  at  length  he  is  inclined  to  agree  with  my  judgment. 
Which  of  us  is  most  exact,  a  little  time  will  now  determine. 
As,  therefore,  these  Provinces  may  not  longer  expect  to  see 
any  of  his  performances  after  this  year,  I  think  myself  free 
to  take  up  the  task." 

Poor  Richard's  Almanac  for  1733  succeeded  beyond  his 
expectations.  In  the  preface  for  the  issue  of  1734  he  regrets 
that  he  was  not  able  to  be  present  at  the  closing  scene  of 
Leeds's  life  and  so  cannot  positively  say  whether  the  man 
was  dead  or  not. 

'There  is,  however,  (and  I  cannot  speak  it  without  sorrow), 
there  is  the  strongest  probability  that  my  dear  friend  is  no 
more;  for  there  appears  in  his  name,  as  I  am  assured,  an 

[PAGE  31] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

Almanack  for  the  year  1734,  in  which  I  am  treated  in  a  very 
gross  and  unhandsome  manner;  in  which  I  am  called  a  false 
predicter,  an  ignorant,  a  conceited  scribbler,  a  fool,  and  a 
lyar.  Mr.  Leeds  was  too  well  bred  to  use  any  man  so  in 
decently  and  so  scurrilously,  and,  moreover,  his  esteem  and 
affection  for  me  was  extraordinary;  so  that  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  pamphlet  may  be  only  a  contrivance  of  somebody  or 
other,  who  hopes,  perhaps,  to  sell  two  or  three  years'  Alman 
acks  still,  by  the  sole  force  and  virtue  of  Mr.  Leeds's  name." 

Thus  the  controversy  went  on  for  several  years,  greatly  to 
the  joy  of  the  populace  and  to  the  mortification  of  poor 
Titan  Leeds. 

The  Almanac  was  issued  for  more  than  twenty  years  with 
an  annual  sale  of  ten  thousand  copies.  The  last  one  for  which 
Franklin  wrote  the  copy  was  that  of  1758.  The  sayings  of 
"Poor  Richard"  are  too  well  known  to  require  mention  here. 
They  worked  themselves  into  the  language  of  the  day,  and 
many  of  them  have  come  down  to  us.  As  Rembrandt  and 
Leonardo  da  Vinci  did  not  hesitate  to  borrow  an  idea  from  a 
greater  or  lesser  artist,  sometimes  with  and  sometimes,  alas, 
without  a  "by  your  leave,  Sir,"  so  Franklin  looked  upon  all 
literature  as  fair  game  for  "Poor  Richard"  and  for  the 
editor  of  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette.  It  troubled  his  thrifty 
soul  to  discover  a  fine  truth  buried  between  antique  covers, 
or  rendered  non-effective  by  stilted  phrase.  He  could  not  let 
it  lie  dormant;  he  garbed  it  in  his  own  quaint  way  and  sent 
it  forth  anew  as  on  the  wings  of  the  wind.  So  successful 
was  he  in  doing  this  that  while  his  version  lives  the  original 
is  usually  forgotten. 

The  Gazette  and  the  Almanac  being  increasingly  satisfac 
tory  to  editor  and  reader  alike,  Franklin  now  projected  an 
other  publication.  This  was  to  be  a  monthly  magazine.  As 
in  the  starting  of  his  newspaper  he  blundered  in  mentioning 
his  plan  prematurely,  so,  when  the  new  periodical  lay  plain 

[PAGE  32] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

in  his  mind,  he  repeated  the  mistake.  A  rival  publisher 
learned  of  it,  seized  the  idea,  printed  a  prospectus  and  issued, 
February  13,  1741,  the  first  number  of  The  American  Maga 
zine,  just  three  days  before  Franklin's  The  General  Magazine 
appeared.  These  were  the  first  monthly  periodicals  to  appear 
in  America.  At  the  end  of  six  months  both  were  dead  and 
buried.  The  first  departed  this  life  aged  three  months,  leaving 
a  publisher  to  mourn,  not  over  its  loss,  but  over  that  of  a  much- 
depleted  bank  account.  The  second  gasped  out  its  life  at  six 
months,  leaving  Franklin  a  wiser  but  sadder  man.  It  was  one 
of  his  few  failures. 

Franklin  worked  as  an  editor  almost  forty  years.  Besides 
the  newspaper  and  the  Almanac,  he  wrote  many  pamphlets 
upon  questions  of  the  day.  This  was  the  trouble  with  Frank 
lin  in  literature.  He  wrote  too  much  upon  passing  events. 
He  was  too  intensely  practical.  Deep  imagination,  real  spirit 
uality  and  idealism  were  lacking  in  the  man,  and  the  lack 
showed  in  his  work.  John  Keats,  who  wrote  always  from  the 
pure  delight  of  writing,  speaks  of  Franklin  as  "a  philosophical 
Quaker  full  of  mean  and  thrifty  maxims."  But  Keats  did  not 
understand  Franklin  any  more  than  Franklin  would  have 
understood  Keats.  They  were  in  literature  the  very  antithesis 
of  each  other. 

Franklin  used  his  pen  effectively  always ;  his  pungent,  often 
homely  English  never  missed  its  mark.  The  tasks  he  had  set 
himself  early  in  life,  translating  Latin,  paraphrasing  the  Bible, 
studying  Addison  and  Swift,  rewriting  whole  essays  from 
memory,  guided  only  by  a  few  headings,  rendering  prose  into 
verse  and  verse  into  prose,  all  had  their  effect  in  perfecting 
one  of  the  masters  of  English  prose.  His  success  in  several 
of  his  walks  of  life  was  due  to  his  ability  to  write  clearly  and 
forcefully. 

Paul  Leicester  Ford,  in  his  "  Many-Sided  Franklin,"  sums 
up  the  literary  side  of  him  thus: 

[PAGE  33] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

"This  self-educated  boy  and  busy,  practical  man  gave  to 
American  literature  the  most  popular  autobiography  ever 
written,  a  series  of  political  and  social  satires  that  can  bear 
comparison  with  those  of  the  greatest  satirists,  a  private 
correspondence  as  readable  as  Walpole's  or  Chesterfield's; 
and  the  collection  of  Poor  Richard's  epigrams  has  been  oftener 
printed  and  translated  than  any  other  production  of  an 
American  pen. 

'If  you  would  not  be  forgotten, 
As  soon  as  you  are  dead  and  rotten, 
Either  write  things  worth  reading, 
Or  do  things  worth  the  writing,' 

advised  the  Almanac-maker,  and  his  original  did  both." 


The  portrait  used  for  Franklin  in  his  editorial  sanctum 
was  influenced  largely  by  the  one  painted  by  Franklin's  friend 
Benjamin  Wilson  in  1759.  It  is  not  very  familiar  to  Americans 
because  it  was  carried  to  England  by  Major-General  Charles 
Gray  when  his  troops  evacuated  Philadelphia  in  1778.  Gray's 
great-grandson,  the  fourth  Earl  Gray,  when  Governor-General 
of  Canada,  in  1906  returned  it  to  America.  Matthew  Pratt's 
portrait  of  Franklin  painted  in  1756  also  influenced  Mr.  Mills 
in  the  Franklin  he  has  here  given  us. 

On  top  of  the  bookshelves  is  the  famous  little  green  model 
of  the  Franklin  stove,  which  is  now  in  possession  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  in  Philadelphia.  On  the  right 
of  it  is  an  electric  dynamo,  now  in  the  custody  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Pennsylvania.  Leyden  jars,  such  as  Franklin  used  in 
his  experiments,  are  also  on  the  bookshelves.  Pinned  on  the 
wall  between  window  and  stove  model  is  the  cover  of  Frank 
lin's  ill-starred  magazine.  The  quill  pens,  sand-box,  candle 
sticks,  and  all  the  other  accessories  of  the  writing-table  are 

[PAGE  34] 


FRANKLIN  THE  EDITOR 

painted  from  the  actual  objects  which  date  back  to  Franklin's 
day.  In  fact,  the  whole  room,  with  its  stiff  furniture,  its  scien 
tific  models,  its  air  of  utility  throughout,  is  the  only  sort  of 
room  in  which  we  can  imagine  Franklin  at  home.  This  win 
dow,  for  instance,  innocent  of  shade  or  curtain,  must  have 
been  exactly  his  idea  of  a  window,  something  to  let  in  light 
and  sunshine,  in  which  he  believed  as  firmly  as  he  disbelieved 
in  unnecessary  luxury  and  things  artistic,  especially  if  such 
things  obstructed  his  view  of  the  street  and  wharves  and  the 
busy  world  about  him. 


[PAGE  35] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

IN  Franklin's  day  men  sometimes  travelled  about  from 
town  to  town,  especially  in  Europe,  "selling  shocks"  at 
so  much  apiece.  The  word  electricity  was  becoming  very 
interesting  to  all  the  world,  although  not  even  the  most 
learned  "philosophers"  suspected  the  smallest  part  of  what  it 
would  later  mean  to  mankind.  In  1746  a  Dr.  Spencer  came  to 
Boston,  lecturing  on  this  subject,  and  Franklin  happened  to 
hear  him.  Franklin  had  always  had  an  investigating  turn  of 
mind,  as  was  shown,  for  instance,  by  the  questions  brought  up 
for  discussion  at  his  club,  the  Junto:  "How  may  the  phenom 
ena  of  vapors  be  explained?  "  "Why  does  the  flame  of  a  candle 
tend  upwards  in  a  spire?"  and  so  on.  Dr.  Spencer's  clumsily 
performed  experiments  interested  Franklin  so  much  that  he 
bought  the  apparatus  and  went  to  work  with  it. 

The  following  year  Mr.  P.  Collinson  of  London  sent  the 
Library  Company  of  Philadelphia  a  glass  tube  such  as  was 
being  used  in  generating  electricity.  It  was  about  two  and  a 
half  feet  long,  and  was  intended  to  be  rubbed  with  silk  or 
buckskin,  and  meanwhile  to  be  held  in  contact  with  the  ob 
ject  which  was  to  be  charged.  Franklin  and  several  friends 
spent  all  their  leisure  time  experimenting  with  it  and  similar 
contrivances.  His  letters  to  Collinson  concerning  their  work, 
though  at  first  ridiculed  by  the  Royal  Society,  were  eventually 
published  (1751)  under  the  title:  "New  Experiments  and 
Observations  in  Electricity,  Made  at  Philadelphia  in  America." 
His  discoveries  met  with  recognition  first  in  Europe.  He  gained 
a  wide  reputation  as  a  philosopher,  as  the  expression  went  at 
that  period  —  we  should  say  "physicist"  or  "scientist"; 
"natural  philosophy"  is  a  term  seldom  heard  now. 

[PAGE  37] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

The  electrical  studies  of  the  day  were  conducted  with  great 
lightheartedness.  When,  in  an  attempt  to  kill  a  turkey  by 
means  of  an  electric  shock,  Franklin  made  "so  notorious  a 
blunder"  as  to  prostrate  himself  unconscious  on  the  floor,  he 
said  he  was  like  an  Irishman  who  wished  to  steal  gunpowder 
but  made  the  hole  in  the  cask  with  a  red-hot  poker.  The 
investigations  were  often  as  much  like  play  as  serious  research. 
Franklin  writes  a  friend,  for  instance,  about  a  pleasure  party 
on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill. 

"Spirits,  at  the  same  time,  are  to  be  fired  by  a  spark 
sent  from  side  to  side  through  the  river,  without  any  other 
conductor  than  the  water,  an  experiment  which  we  sometime 
since  performed,  to  the  amazement  of  many.  A  turkey  is  to 
be  killed  for  our  dinner  by  the  electric  shock,  and  roasted  by 
the  electric  jack  before  a  fire  kindled  by  the  electrical  bottle, 
when  the  healths  of  all  the  famous  electricians  in  England, 
Holland,  France  and  Germany  are  to  be  drank  in  electrified 
bumpers  under  the  discharge  of  guns  from  the  electrical 
battery." 

This  playfulness  did  not  prevent  real  advance  in  knowl 
edge.  Franklin  discarded  the  accepted  "two-fluid  theory," 
and  worked  out  the  "one-fluid  theory."  Early  in  his  studies 
he  began  speculating  on  the  resemblance  between  lightning 
and  electricity.  He  surmised  the  two  might  be  alike  in  being 
attracted  by  points,  and  suggested  a  method  of  ascertaining 
positively  that  they  were  the  same  in  this  particular. 

"I  would  propose  an  experiment,  to  be  tried  where  it  may 
be  done  conveniently.  On  the  top  of  some  high  tower  or 
steeple  place  a  kind  of  sentry  box  big  enough  to  contain  a 
man  and  an  electrical  stand.  From  the  middle  of  the  stand 
let  an  iron  rod  rise,  and  pass  bending  out  of  the  door  and 
then  upright  twenty  or  thirty  feet,  pointed  very  sharp  at 
the  end.  If  the  electrical  stand  be  kept  clean  and  dry,  a  man 
standing  on  it  when  such  clouds  are  passing  low  might  be 

[PAGE  38] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

electrified  and  afford  sparks,  the  rod  drawing  fire  to  him 
from  a  cloud." 

This  experiment  was  successfully  tried  in  France,  where  tall 
iron  bars  were  used  instead  of  steeples,  and  also  in  England. 
In  Russia  a  professor  brought  so  much  electricity  from  the 
clouds  as  to  be  struck  dead.  In  1752  Franklin  wrote  Collinson 
that  he  had  heard  of  the  successful  experimenting  in  France, 
and  mentioned  that  he  had  devised:>a  way  of  performing  the 
same  experiment  without  a  high  iron  rod  or  a  steeple.  This 
was  the  feat  with  the  kite,  about  which  all  the  world  has  been 
more  excited  than  Franklin  himself.  He  gave  a  minute  de 
scription  of  the  experiment,  but  he  never  wrote  any  narrative 
of  his  own  performing  of  it.  The  accounts  given  of  his  aston 
ishment,  anxiety  and  exultation  had  little  or  no  foundation. 
He  could  not  have  been  carried  away  with  emotion,  as  he  was 
simply  confirming  what  he  had  already  reasoned  out.  The 
most  he  says  on  this  point  in  the  Autobiography  is: 

"I  will  not  swell  this  narrative  with  an  account  of  that 
capital  experiment  [in  Paris]  nor  of  the  infinite  pleasure  I 
received  in  the  success  of  a  similar  one  I  made  soon  after 
with  a  kite  at  Philadelphia,  as  both  are  to  be  found  in  the 
histories  of  electricity." 

Sometime  before  this  he  had  (1749)  planned  the  lightning- 
rod. 

"May  not  the  knowledge  of  this  power  of  points  be  of 
use  to  mankind,  in  preserving  houses,  churches,  ships,  &c 
from  the  stroke  of  lightning,  by  directing  us  to  fix,  on  the 
highest  parts  of  those  edifices,  upright  rods  of  iron  made 
sharp  as  a  needle,  and  gilt  to  prevent  rusting,  and  from  the 
foot  of  those  rods  a  wire  down  the  outside  of  the  building  into 
the  ground,  or  down  one  of  the  shrouds  of  a  ship,  and  down 
her  side  till  it  reaches  the  water." 

It  was  several  months  after  his  kite  experiment  before 
Franklin  wrote  Collinson  about  it.  His  directions  are  explicit: 

[PAGE  39] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

"Make  a  small  cross  of  two  light  strips  of  cedar,  the 
arms  so  long  as  to  reach  to  the  four  corners  of  a  large  thin 
silk  handkerchief  when  extended;  tie  the  corners  of  the 
handkerchief  to  the  extremities  of  the  cross,  so  you  have 
the  body  of  a  kite;  which  being  properly  accommodated 
with  a  tail,  loop,  and  string,  will  rise  in  the  air,  like  those 
made  of  paper;  but  this  being  of  silk  is  fitter  to  bear  the 
wet  and  wind  of  a  thunder  gust  without  tearing.  To  the 
top  of  the  upright  stick  of  the  cross  is  to  be  fixed  a  very 
sharp  pointed  wire,  rising  a  foot  or  more  above  the  wood. 
To  the  end  of  the  twine,  next  the  hand,  is  to  be  tied  a  silk 
ribbon,  and  where  the  silk  and  twine  join,  a  key  may  be 
fastened.  This  kite  is  to  be  raised  when  a  thundergust 
appears  to  be  coming  on,  and  the  person  who  holds  the 
string  must  stand  within  a  door  or  window,  or  under  some 
cover,  so  that  the  silk  ribbon  may  not  be  wet;  and  care  must 
be  taken  that  the  twine  does  not  touch  the  frame  of  the  door 
or  window.  As  soon  as  any  of  the  thunder  clouds  come  over 
the  kite,  the  pointed  wire  will  draw  the  electric  fire  from 
them,  and  the  kite,  with  all  the  twine,  will  be  electrified,  and 
the  loose  filaments  of  the  twine,  will  stand  out  every  way, 
and  be  attracted  by  an  approaching  finger.  And  when  the 
rain  has  wetted  the  kite  and  twine,  so  that  it  can  conduct 
the  electric  fire  freely,  you  will  find  it  stream  out  plentifully 
from  the  key  on  the  approach  of  your  knuckle.  At  this  key 
the  phial  may  be  charged:  and  from  electric  fire  thus 
obtained,  spirits  may  be  kindled,  and  all  the  other  electric 
experiments  be  performed,  which  are  usually  done  by  the 
help  of  a  rubbed  glass  globe  or  tube,  and  thereby  the  same 
ness  of  the  electric  matter  with  that  of  lightning  completely 
demonstrated." 

This  experiment  and  the  invention  of  the  lightning-rod 
would  have  made  Franklin's  name  well  known  throughout 
the  world,  if  he  had  never  done  anything  else  noteworthy. 

[PAGE  40] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

Kant  called  him  a  modern  Prometheus,  as  he  had  brought 
down  the  fire  from  heaven.  The  feeling  of  France  was  expressed 
by  a  famous  line  which  was  often  quoted  and  appeared  again 
and  again  on  the  symbolic  engravings  wherein  Franklin  figured 
with  goddesses  and  nymphs: 

"Eripuit  caelo  fulmen  septrumque  tyrannis" 
("He  has  snatched  the  lightning  from  the  sky  and  the  sceptre 
from  tyrants.")  England  was  less  admiring.  There  an  amus 
ing  argument  sprang  up  over  the  comparative  efficacy  of  blunt 
and  sharp  ends  to  the  lightning-rods.  George  III,  who  in 
general  had  little  cause  to  like  Franklin's  ideas,  ordered 
blunt-ended  ones  for  Kew  Palace.  An  epigram  of  the  time 
says: 

"While  you,  great  George,  for  safety  hunt, 
And  sharp  conductors  change  for  blunt, 

The  nation's  out  of  joint. 
Franklin  a  wiser  course  pursues, 
And  all  your  thunder  fearless  views, 
By  keeping  to  the  point." 

The  inventor  himself  took  no  part  in  the  discussion.  "If  I 
had  a  wish  about  it,"  he  said,  "it  would  be  that  he  had  re 
jected  them  altogether  as  ineffectual.  For  it  is  only  since  he 
thought  himself  and  family  safe  from  the  thunder  of  Heaven 
that  he  dared  to  use  his  own  thunder  in  destroying  his  inno 
cent  subjects."  In  some  New  England  circles,  the  lightning- 
rod  gave  cause  for  sober-minded  thought.  It  was  feared 
that  the  more  points  of  iron  there  are  on  the  earth's  surface, 
the  more  the  earth  must  become  charged  with  electricity  and 
the  more  earthquakes  there  must  be.  It  seemed  presuming  for 
man  to  attempt  "to  control  the  artillery  of  heaven."  Some 
said  that  "as  lightning  is  one  of  the  means  of  punishing  the 
sins  of  mankind,  and  of  warning  them  from  the  commission 
of  sin,  it  is  impious  to  prevent  its  full  execution." 

[PAGE  41] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

Electricity  was  by  no  means  the  only  scientific  subject 
which  Franklin  investigated.  He  observed  the  course  of 
storms  over  North  America,  and  discovered  that  the  north 
east  storms  of  the  Atlantic  coast  came  from  the  southwest. 
The  Gulf  Stream  he  studied  many  years.  Even  on  his  last 
trip  home  across  the  Atlantic,  when  disabled  by  illness,  he 
tested  the  temperature  of  the  water  repeatedly  with  his 
thermometer.  He  was  the  first  to  bring  the  current  promi 
nently  to  notice,  to  cause  a  chart  of  it  to  be  published,  and  to 
introduce  the  use  of  the  thermometer  in  navigation. 

He  made  a  special  study  of  chimneys  and  drafts.  During 
his  residence  in  England  many  a  notable  man  was  glad  of 
the  services  of  the  American  "chimney  doctor,"  as  his  enemies 
sometimes  liked  to  call  him.  He  invented  the  "Pennsylvania 
fireplace,"  an  ingenious  form  of  "open  fireplace  stove." 
Similar  stoves  are  still  called  by  his  name.  He  also  built  a 
stove  which  consumed  its  own  smoke. 

Franklin  was  constantly  inventing  something:  devices  for 
the  better  handling  of  ships,  better  patterns  for  sails,  new 
methods  of  propelling  boats,  a  long  arm  to  hand  down  books 
from  the  upper  shelves  of  his  library,  a  musical  instrument 
comprised  of  glasses  specially  shaped  and  tuned,  double  spec 
tacles,  the  upper  half  of  the  lens  being  curved  for  distant 
vision  and  the  lower  half  for  nearer  vision.  He  advised  that 
shipwrecked  sailors  keep  their  clothing  saturated  with  salt 
water,  to  allay  thirst;  an  idea  which  is  said  to  have  been 
successfully  put  in  practice.  His  mind  was  always  alert  and 
tireless.  If  it  was  a  sunny  day  in  winter,  he  enjoyed  the  snow 
the  more  for  laying  on  it  squares  of  different  colored  cloth, 
so  as  to  observe  under  which  color  the  snow  melted  most 
rapidly.  If  he  went  for  a  country  walk,  he  would  carry  a 
little  oil  in  the  upper  hollow  joint  of  his  bamboo  cane  and 
test  with  it  the  action  of  oil  on  the  ponds  and  pools  along 
the  road. 

[PAGE  42] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

There  was  no  limit  to  the  variety  of  subjects  which  he 
carefully  studied.  The  following  list  is  by  no  means  complete, 
but  its  heterogeneousness  is  enlightening.  He  studied: 

The   effect   of   the   depth   of  The  rainfall, 

water  on  the  speed  of  ships.  Earthquakes. 

Phosphorescence  of  sea  water.  Whirlwinds  and  waterspouts. 

The  aurora  borealis.  The  cause  of  the  saltness  of 

National  wealth.  the  sea. 

Peace  and  war.  Free  trade. 

Sun  spots.  Slave  trade. 

Ventilation.  Shooting  stars. 
Medicine. 

Over  all  enterprises  like  the  construction  of  steamboats, 
air-pumps  and  balloons,  he  was  very  enthusiastic. 

One  memorable  result  of  Franklin's  scientific  interests  was 
the  establishment  of  a  society  to  further  the  advance  of 
science,  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  The  members 
at  first  seemed  to  him  "very  idle  gentlemen,"  who  would 
"take  no  pains."  Later  the  organization  became  zealous  in 
its  work.  In  his  later  years,  Franklin  built  a  wing  on  his  house, 
the  first  floor  of  which  was  for  the  use  of  this  society.  In  this 
building  certain  principles  of  fire-proof  construction  were 
introduced  by  Franklin  which  have  since  been  very  generally 
adopted. 

It  should  be  remembered  to  the  "philosopher's"  credit 
that  he  was  in  his  scientific  work  unselfish.  He  disbelieved  in 
taking  out  patents,  as  his  discoveries  were  for  the  use  of  the 
world.  Even  when  a  Philadelphia  ironmonger  put  a  slight 
addition  on  his  Pennsylvania  fireplace,  patented  it,  and 
coined  money  out  of  it,  Franklin's  opinion  in  this  regard 
seems  not  to  have  wavered.  He  was  merely  a  seeker  after 
truth.  "I  find,"  said  he,  "a  frank  acknowledgement  of  one's 
ignorance  is  not  only  the  easiest  way  to  get  rid  of  a  difficulty, 

[PAGE  48] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

but  the  likeliest  way  to  obtain  information,  and  therefore  I 
practise  it;  and  I  think  it  honest  policy."  Controversies  to 
protect  his  own  reputation  as  discoverer  and  inventor  had 
no  attractions  for  him. 

"I  have  never  entered  into  any  controversy  in  defense  of 
my  philosophical  opinions;  I  leave  them  to  take  their  chance 
in  the  world.  If  they  are  right,  truth  and  experience  will  sup 
port  them;  if  wrong,  they  ought  to  be  refuted  and  rejected. 
Disputes  are  apt  to  sour  one's  temper  and  disturb  one's 
quiet." 

When  Abbe  Nollet  denied  the  verity  of  Franklin's  electrical 
experiments,  "I  concluded,"  he  says,  "to  let  my  papers  shift 
for  themselves;  believing  it  was  better  to  spend  what  time  I 
could  spare  from  public  business  in  making  new  experiments, 
than  in  disputing  about  those  already  made." 

His  purpose  in  all  research  was  practical.  He  might  be  ever 
so  immersed  in  speculation,  but  he  sooner  or  later  applied 
the  touchstone:  how  much  will  this  help  mankind?  He  says: 
"What  signifies  philosophy  that  does  not  apply  to  some  use?" 
After  all,  he  considers  it  of  little  importance  to  know  "the 
manner  in  which  nature  executed  her  laws;  'tis  enough  to  know 
the  laws  themselves.  'Tis  of  real  use  to  know  that  china  left 
in  the  air  will  fall  and  break;  but  how  it  comes  to  fall  and 
why  it  breaks  are  matters  of  speculation.  'Tis  a  pleasure 
indeed  to  know  them,  but  we  can  preserve  our  china  without 
it." 

Biographers  have  sometimes  wondered  that  so  few  of 
Franklin's  achievements  are  to-day  well  known.  When  the 
multiplicity  of  subjects  which  he  studied  is  considered,  and 
the  large  variety  of  other  kinds  of  important  work  which  he 
did,  this  question  calls  for  no  answer. 

Franklin  made  suggestions  which  were  far  in  advance  of 
the  scientific  thought  of  his  time;  for  instance,  his  idea  of  a 
possible  medium  pervading  all  space,  by  means  of  which  the 

[PAGE  44] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

attractions  and  repulsions  of  bodies  distant  from  one  another 
may  take  place,  and  his  idea  that  the  phenomena  of  optics 
could  be  explained  by  means  of  the  vibration  of  an  elastic 
ether.  In  general,  Franklin  accomplished  great  things  as  a 
collector  who  knew  admirably  well  how  to  make  scientific 
knowledge  available  and  intelligible  to  people.  Even  to-day 
his  clear-cut  explanations  of  puzzling,  every-day  questions, 
not  always  answered  in  books,  are  valuable.  His  treatises 
on  smoke  and  chimneys  are  really  excellent  reading.  "Modern 
students,"  says  one  biographer,  "would  have  an  easier  time 
if  Franklin  were  still  here  to  write  their  text-books."  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  among  really  great  scientists  Franklin  does 
not  stand  in  the  forefront,  but  rather  in  the  second  rank. 
If  he  had  not  been  prevented  by  his  long  public  service  from 
giving  to  scientific  research  the  time  he  would  gladly  have 
devoted  to  it,  the  foremost  scientists  would  undoubtedly  have 
had  need  to  look  to  their  laurels. 


The  painting  of  Franklin  flying  his  kite  in  a  thunder 
storm  is  purely  imaginary,  but  follows  facts  as  closely  as 
possible.  In  this  particular  it  presents  a  refreshing  contrast 
to  the  innumerable  fanciful  pictures  illustrating  this  incident 
which  for  generations  inevitably  appeared  in  every  school- 
book.  Franklin's  son  William  was  at  this  time  at  least  nine 
teen,  and,  according  to  his  father,  "something  of  a  dandy." 

They  went  out  to  the  outskirts  of  Philadelphia  to  the 
neighborhood,  as  nearly  as  can  be  ascertained,  of  what  is  now 
Seventeenth  and  Callowhill  Streets.  There  were  no  spires  in 
Philadelphia  at  that  time,  had  Franklin  preferred  to  try  his 
experiment  in  a  high  place  as  he  suggested  in  his  letters  to 
Collinson.  The  two  took  refuge  from  the  rain  in  an  old  cow 
shed.  Franklin  attached  a  silk  cord  or  ribbon  to  the  kite 
string,  which,  being  a  non-conductor,  made  a  convenient  thing 

[PAGE  45] 


FRANKLIN  THE  SCIENTIST 

to  hold  to.  He  brought  the  string  in  through  the  shed  door, 
and  attached  it  to  the  Ley  den  jar,  which  is  to  be  seen  on  a 
board  at  the  left  of  the  picture.  They  not  only  succeeded  in 
drawing  sparks  from  the  string  by  touching  their  knuckles 
to  a  key  which  they  fastened  to  it,  but  they  succeeded  in 
charging  the  Ley  den  jar  also. 

The  kite  experiment  took  place  in  1752,  when  Franklin 
was  forty-six  years  old. 


[PAGE  46] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT:  ABROAD 

yl       MASTER  examined  by  a  parcel  of  school-boys," 

r~\  is  the  way  Burke  aptly  described  Franklin's  ordeal 
in  Parliament,  February,  1766.  This  was  at  the 
time  of  the  Stamp  Act  agitation.  The  act,  which  consisted  of 
fifty -five  articles,  and  imposed  taxes  on  fifty-four  classes  of 
objects,  had  been  proposed  by  George  Grenville,  and  had 
been  passed  the  year  before. 

Previous  to  this  time,  when  England  desired  to  raise  money 
in  America,  it  had  been  customary  for  the  king  to  send  circu 
lar  letters  to  the  Assemblies  of  the  colonies,  setting  forth  the 
need  of  assistance.  Each  Assembly  appropriated  what  it  con 
sidered  the  colony  could  afford.  Grenville's  idea  that  Parlia 
ment  should  tax  the  colonies,  although  the  latter  could  send 
no  representatives  to  Parliament,  was  an  unhappy  one. 
Franklin  was  in  England  as  agent  of  the  Pennsylvania  colony 
at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  did  all  in 
his  power  to  prevent  it.  But  Parliament  preferred  compul 
sion  to  the  "golden  bridge"  of  persuasion. 

"We  might  as  well  have  hindered  the  sun's  setting,  ..." 
Franklin  wrote  in  a  letter,  "but  since  it  is  down,  my  friend, 
and  it  may  be  long  before  it  rises  again,  let  us  make  as  good  a 
night  of  it  as  we  can.  We  may  still  light  candles." 

Franklin's  enemies  accused  him  of  traitorously  favoring 
the  act,  but  letters  and  documents  show  conclusively  that 
this  was  false.  It  is  true  that,  naturally  enough,  he  did  not 
foresee  the  stormy  objections  which  would  be  made  in  America 
to  the  stamps.  He  hoped  that  the  clamor  of  merchants  and 
manufacturers  in  England  would  accomplish  even  more  than 

[PAGE  47] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

it  did  toward  the  repeal  of  the  act.  He  considered  that  a 
corrupt  Parliament  was  to  blame,  and  he  hoped  that  no  out 
break  of  hostilities  between  the  two  countries  would  prove 
necessary.  But  he  was  convinced  that  Britain  was  in  the 
wrong,  that  the  Stamp  Act  was  the  "mother  of  mischiefs," 
and  he  declared  that  it  was  "supposed  to  be  an  undoubted 
right  of  Englishmen  not  to  be  taxed  but  by  their  own  consent 
given  through  their  representatives."  The  position  he  occu 
pied  made  him  unpopular:  Englishmen  thought  him  too 
much  of  an  American,  and  Americans  thought  him  too  much 
of  an  Englishman.  Furthermore,  his  situation  was  difficult 
because  it  was  hard,  slow  work  for  people  on  either  side  of 
the  Atlantic  to  obtain  full  and  accurate  information  as  to  the 
real  state  of  public  opinion  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean. 

The  Grenville  ministry  gave  place  to  the  Marquis  of 
Rockingham's  ministry,  which  was  friendly  to  America. 
Edmund  Burke  was  Rockingham's  private  secretary.  (A  list 
of  this  ministry  may  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  notes  on  the 
painting  of  Franklin  before  the  House  of  Commons.) 

The  new  Parliament  held  a  six  weeks'  investigation  of 
American  affairs.  "Every  denomination  of  men"  attended 
at  the  bar  to  give  testimony.  "Such  evidence  was  never  laid 
before  Parliament,"  said  Burke.  The  chief  witness,  in  fact, 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  witnesses  the  world  has  ever 
seen,  was  Dr.  Franklin.  Probably  no  one  man  before  ever 
gave  orally  so  complete  a  setting-forth  of  the  condition  of  an 
entire  country. 

Although  many  questions  were  asked  by  sympathizers, 
expressly  to  give  him  an  opportunity  to  speak  on  certain 
points,  a  large  number  were  deliberately  and  skilfully  aimed 
to  entangle  him.  He  was  equally  prepared  for  both.  Some 
of  his  questioners  were:  Mr.  Hewett  (Coventry),  Mr.  Huske, 
Mr.  George  Grenville,  Mr.  Nugent,  Lord  Clare,  Mr.  Grey 
Cooper,  Mr.  Prescot,  Sir  George  Savile,  Mr.  A.  Bacon, 

[PAGE  48] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

Mr.  Charles  Townshend,  Mr.  Burke,  the  Marquis  of  Granby, 
Lord  North,  Mr.  Thurlowe,  Mr.  Conway,  Mr.  Welbore  Ellis. 

The  report  of  Franklin's  examination  deserves  to  be  widely 
known.  One  main  argument  which  Franklin  particularly 
emphasized  in  his  replies  was  that  the  colonies  were  even  then 
burdened  with  debts  and  taxes  incurred  in  helping  to  pay 
for  a  war  that  had  not  been  really  necessary  for  their  own 
welfare.  Moreover,  they  had  contributed  men  as  well  as 
money  for  the  assistance  of  the  mother-country. 

Several  of  his  answers  pointed  to  the  impossibility  of 
enforcing  the  tax.  The  frontier  counties  were  too  poor  and 
too  remote.  A  man  who  needed  a  stamp  for  a  deed  or  a  re 
ceipt  might  have  to  make  a  journey  costing  "three  or  four 
pounds  that  the  crown  might  get  sixpence." 

Grenville  and  his  party  argued  that  the  colonies  did  not 
pay  their  share.  Franklin  showed  that  in  response  to  letters 
sent  the  Assemblies  they  had  contributed  so  much  more  than 
their  share  that  Parliament,  in  accordance  with  the  king's 
suggestion,  had  been  in  the  habit  of  refunding  a  sum  annually. 
This,  however,  did  not  begin  to  be  adequate  reimbursement. 

"Is  it  not  necessary  to  send  troops  to  America  to  defend 
the  Americans  against  the  Indians?"  he  was  asked.  "No," 
replied  Franklin.  "...  They  defended  themselves  when 
they  were  but  a  handful,  and  the  Indians  much  more  numer 
ous." 

Before  1763,  Franklin  assured  his  questioners  that  the 
colonies  had  been  governed  "at  the  expense  only  of  a  little 
pen,  ink,  and  paper;  they  were  led  by  a  thread."  They  had 
considered  Parliament  as  the  bulwark  of  their  liberties;  now 
their  temper  was  very  much  altered. 

The  Tory  members  professed  not  to  understand  why  the 
colonists  objected  to  the  Stamp  Act,  though  they  willingly 
let  Parliament  levy  duties  regulating  commerce.  He  explained 
that  if  unequal  burdens  were  laid  on  trade,  merchants  put 

[PAGE  49] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

additional  prices  on  their  goods;  but  people  were  not  obliged 
to  buy  the  merchandise  at  the  advanced  prices  unless  they 
wished.  On  the  other  hand,  under  the  Stamp  Act  the  colon 
ists  "have  no  commerce,  make  no  exchange  of  property  with 
each  other,  neither  purchase,  nor  grant  nor  recover  debts; 
we  shall  neither  marry  nor  make  our  wills,  unless  we  pay 
such  and  such  sums;  and  thus  it  is  intended  to  extort  our 
money  from  us,  or  ruin  us  by  the  consequences  of  refusing 
to  pay  it." 

The  point  was  that  "a  right  to  lay  internal  taxes  was 
never  supposed  to  be  in  Parliament,  as  we  are  not  represented 
there." 

Later  in  the  examination,  when  the  Stamp  Act  men  per 
sisted  in  seeing  no  distinction  between  external  and  internal 
taxes,  Franklin  hinted  that  perhaps  the  colonists  also  would 
come  at  length  to  think  there  was  no  distinction,  and  would 
object  to  both! 

Franklin  pointed  out  that  the  tax  would  be  especially 
resented  by  the  poorer  classes  of  people.  "The  greatest  part 
of  the  money  must  arise  from  law-suits  for  recovery  of  debts 
and  be  paid  by  the  lower  sort  of  people,  who  were  too  poor 
easily  to  pay  their  debts.  It  is,  therefore,  a  heavy  tax  on  the 
poor,  and  a  tax  upon  them  for  being  poor." 

Although  the  tax  should  be  reduced,  Franklin  declared 
that  the  colonists  would  still  not  pay  it. 

Grenville  made  an  interesting  attempt  to  trip  Dr.  Frank 
lin  up.  The  Americans,  he  said,  were  already  cheerfully  pay 
ing  postage,  which  was  a  tax.  But  Franklin  defined  postage 
as  a  non-compulsory  payment  for  services  rendered;  a  man 
could  send  a  letter  by  messenger  if  he  preferred.  "Do  not 
the  Americans,"  Grenville  persisted,  "consider  the  regula 
tions  of  the  post-office,  by  the  act  of  last  year,  as  a  tax?" 
He  should  not  have  crossed  swords  with  the  American  deputy 
postmaster-general.  The  act  he  mentioned,  Franklin  told  him, 

[PAGE  50] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

reduced  the  rate  of  postage  in  America  thirty  per  cent  and 
this  abatement  the  Americans  certainly  did  not  regard  in 
the  light  of  a  tax.  After  this,  Grenville  had  little  to  say. 

The  House  was  deeply  impressed  by  Franklin's  assertion 
that  America  need  depend  not  at  all  on  Britain  for  the  neces 
sities  of  life.  Whereas  the  colonists'  pride  had  been  "to 
indulge  in  the  fashions  and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain," 
now  it  was  "to  wear  their  old  clothes  over  again  till  they  can 
make  new  ones."  '  The  people  will  all  spin  and  work  for 
themselves,  in  their  own  houses." 

There  would  be  no  taxes  collected,  Franklin  asserted, 
"but  such  as  are  stained  with  blood."  Even  military  power 
could  not  carry  the  Stamp  Act  into  execution.  "Suppose," 
said  he,  "a  military  force  sent  into  America,  they  will  find 
nobody  in  arms.  What  are  they  to  do?  They  cannot  force  a 
man  to  take  stamps  who  chooses  to  do  without  them.  They 
will  not  find  a  rebellion;  they  may  indeed  make  one." 

Some  of  the  friends  of  America  tried  to  lead  Franklin  on 
to  make  humorous  replies.  But  at  the  bar  of  Parliament  he 
would  suggest  no  facetious  amendments,  like  the  changing 
of  1765  to  2765  in  the  date  of  the  Stamp  Act;  he  would  hold 
no  discourse  about  American  sheep  growing  wool  so  heavy 
that  they  had  to  drag  little  carts  behind  them  in  which  to 
carry  their  tails.  With  utmost  dignity  he  promptly  met 
every  attack,  saw  afar  off  the  hidden  purpose  of  every  crafty 
question  and  replied  with  exquisite  keenness  and  perfect  self- 
possession.  He  avoided  every  pitfall.  Whitefield  said  every 
answer  he  gave  made  the  questioner  appear  insignificant. 

It  was  on  February  3,  1766,  that  Franklin  and  others 
were  ordered  to  appear  before  the  House.  February  13  he 
was  excepted  from  further  attendance.  Eleven  days  later  a 
resolution  was  reported,  that  leave  be  given  to  bring  in  a 
bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  When  the  vote  was 
finally  taken,  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  voted  for  repeal, 

[PAGE  51] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  against.  (The  names  of  the 
minority  may  be  found  at  the  end  of  the  notes  concerning 
this  painting.) 

"The  ministry,"  wrote  Franklin,  "were  ready  to  hug  me 
for  the  assistance  I  had  given  them."  The  examination  re 
sulted  in  a  great  burst  of  gratitude  to  Franklin,  as  soon  as 
news  of  it  reached  America.  All  the  former  misgivings  as  to 
his  patriotism  were  swept  away;  he  became  a  hero.  The 
PennsylvaniaGazette  published  a  letter  from  London  which  read: 

"Mr.  Benj.  Franklin  has  served  you  greatly.  He  was 
examined  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  gave  such 
clear  and  explicit  answers  to  the  questions  proposed  and 
mentioned  his  own  sentiments  with  so  much  firmness  and 
resolution  as  at  once  did  him  great  credit  and  served  your 
cause  not  a  little.  I  believe  he  has  left  nothing  undone  that 
he  imagined  would  serve  his  country." 

There  was  no  doubt  that  his  brilliant  answers  had  greatly 
aided  in  the  carrying  of  the  repeal.  Philadelphia  was  illumi 
nated;  "the  very  children  seemed  distracted."  A  forty -foot 
barge  from  which  salutes  were  fired,  and  which  bore  the  name 
of  FRANKLIN,  was  dragged  through  the  streets  in  a  pro 
cession.  Franklin  himself  celebrated  the  glad  event  by  sending 
his  wife  a  silk  gown  of  British  manufacture. 


The  painting  of  Franklin  before  the  House  of  Commons 
is  a  remarkable  example  of  an  artist's  truthfulness  to  historic 
detail.  A  scrutiny  of  it  is  like  a  visit  in  London  in  1766. 

The  room  in  which  the  Commons  met  was  not  large. 
It  was  in  St.  Stephen's  Chapel,  which  had  been  so  remodelled, 
it  has  been  said,  as  to  convert  "the  finest  chapel  in  the  king 
dom  into  the  worst  imaginable  chamber  of  legislation."  This 
chapel  was  originally  built  by  Stephen  in  1141;  it  was  rebuilt 
by  Edward  I,  remodelled  by  Edward  III,  supplied  with 

[PAGE  52] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

galleries  and  otherwise  altered  under  Queen  Anne  by  Sir 
Christopher  Wren,  and  destroyed  in  1834  by  fire.  About  half 
the  chapel  was  occupied  as  a  meeting  place  for  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  other  half  being  used  for  lobbies. 

For  dimensions,  proportions  and  architectural  details,  Mr. 
Mills  has  enthusiastically  ransacked  ancient  descriptions, 
diagrams  and  engravings.  He  has  depicted  as  accurately  as 
possible  all  the  fittings,  for  instance,  the  slender  iron  pillars 
wTith  Corinthian  capitals  and  sconces,  the  slightly  elevated 
speaker's  chair  with  its  Corinthian  columns  and  the  royal 
arms  above;  even  the  socket  for  receiving  the  bar  when  drawn 
across  the  entrance. 

Franklin,  not  being  a  member  of  Parliament,  was  obliged 
to  appear  behind  the  bar.  On  this  occasion,  the  speaker  was 
not  occupying  the  chair,  for  the  House  was  "in  committee  of 
the  whole."  The  chair  was  vacant,  and  the  mace,  instead  of 
lying  on  the  table,  was  suspended  in  the  rests  placed  on  the 
front  of  the  table  for  the  purpose.  The  table  was  large,  and 
accommodated  books,  papers  and  the  official  boxes  of  the 
ministers. 

The  chairman  of  committees,  Rose  Fuller,  is  presiding. 
He  sits  at  the  table,  with  the  clerks,  facing  the  visitor,  with 
his  back  turned  to  the  speaker's  chair.  At  the  chairman's 
right  sit  members  of  the  ministry  and  their  adherents;  at  his 
left,  the  opposition  members.  The  painting  is  particularly 
valuable  for  the  many  portraits  of  notable  men  included  in  it. 
Mr.  Mills  has  made  an  exhaustive  study  of  this  matter,  com 
paring  portrait  with  portrait,  securing  likenesses  of  these 
men  painted  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the  date  of  the  Stamp 
Act  investigation.  Wigs  and  details  of  dress  are  true  to  the 
period.  For  Franklin,  at  this  time  sixty  years  old,  the  artist 
has  used  the  Martin  portrait.  His  dignified  pose  is  in  admir 
able  contrast  to  the  somewhat  uncertain  bearing  of  his  ques 
tioner,  George  Grenville,  memorable  as  the  proposer  of  "the 

[PAGE  53] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

unhappy  act."  He  looks  as  if  he  were  just  showing  his  igno 
rance  with  regard  to  American  postal  arrangements. 

The  figure  at  the  lower  right-hand  corner  of  the  picture, 
with  the  left  side  of  his  face  showing,  and  his  left  arm  over 
the  back  of  the  seat,  is  the  sergeant-at-arms.  The  man,  stand 
ing  at  the  right  of  the  speaker,  holding  a  wand,  is  a  whip. 

The  rows  of  faces  merit  close  examination.  The  portraits 
of  the  men  in  the  front  row  in  front  of  Franklin,  at  his  left 
hand,  are,  going  from  left  to  right: 

George  Onslow,  who,  in  1767,  raised  a  laugh  against 
Grenville  by  proposing  that  he  visit  New  England. 

H.  S.  Con  way,  who  moved  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

Lord  George  Sackville  (with  a  hat  on),  one  of  the  vice- 
treasurers  in  the  Rockingham  ministry,  a  joint  vice-chancellor 
of  Ireland,  one  of  those  who  voted  against  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act. 

Thomas  Pitt,  cousin  to  William  Pitt,  one  who  voted  against 
the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

Thomas  Townshend,  "one  of  those  who  were  most  eager 
in  1783  to  bring  the  war  to  a  close  with  liberal  terms  for 
America." 

Lord  Richard  Howe  (with  a  hat  on),  treasurer  of  the  navy 
in  the  Rockingham  ministry. 

This  row  is  known  as  the  Treasury  Bench. 

In  the  second  row,  behind  and  at  the  left  of  Franklin, 
going  from  left  to  right,  are: 

Edmund  Burke,  the  firm  and  able  friend  of  the  colonies. 

Colonel  Barre,  who  had  fought  under  General  Wolfe  at 
Quebec,  the  member  who  made  the  often  quoted  reply  to 
Charles  Townshend,  saying  that  the  colonies  had  been  planted 
by  Britain's  oppression,  had  grown  up  by  her  neglect,  had 
taken  up  arms  in  her  defence,  etc. 

John  Viscount  Downe. 

Sir  Robert  Ladbrooke. 

[PAGE  54 ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

Behind  Franklin,  the  first  half -face  is  an  imaginary  portrait. 
Then  come  portraits  of: 

Sir  Charles  Hardy  (a  three-quarter  view). 

William  Pitt,  whose  speeches,  well  known  in  the  colonies, 
were  a  great  help  to  the  American  cause. 

John  Manners,  Marquis  of  Granby,  master  of  ordnance, 
one  who  voted  against  the  repeal. 

Charles  Townshend,  paymaster  in  the  Rockingham  min 
istry,  who  was  outspoken  in  the  belief  that  the  Americans  were 
over-indulged  children,  too  selfish  to  contribute  to  the  assist 
ance  of  England. 

Behind  the  sergeant-at-arms  in  the  front  row,  next  a  half- 
face,  which  is  imaginary,  can  be  seen,  going  from  right  to 
left,  the  faces  of: 

Lord  North,  under  whose  government  the  tea  was  sent 
out,  because,  as  he  said,  "the  king  means  to  try  the  question 
with  America,"  and 

Alexander  Wedderburn,  who  in  1774  heaped  abuse  on 
Franklin  when  he  appeared  before  the  Privy  Council  in  the 
affair  of  the  Hutchinson  letters. 


LORD  ROCKINGHAM'S  MINISTRY,  JULY,  1765 
Lord  Chancellor,  Lord  Northington. 
Lord  President,  Lord  Winchelsea. 
Lord  Privy  Seal,  Duke  of  Newcastle. 
Lord  Chamberlain,  Duke  of  Portland. 
Vice  Chamberlain,  Lord  Villiers. 
Groom  of  the  Stole,  Lord  Huntingdon. 
Lord  Steward,  Lord  Talbot. 
Treasurer  of  the  Household,  Lord  Edgecumbe. 
Comptroller,  T.  Pelham. 
Cofferer,  Lord  Scarborough. 
Treasurer  of  the  Chamber,  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot. 

[PAGE  55] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 


Lords  of  the  Treasury, 


Lords  of  the  Admiralty, 


Secretaries  of  State, 


Master  of  Horse,  Duke  of  Rutland. 
Captain  of  Yeomen  of  the  Guard,  Lord  Falmouth. 
Captain  of  Band  of  Pensioners,  Lord  Litchfield. 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  Lord  Rockingham. 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  W.  Dowdeswell. 

Lord  J.  Cavendish. 

Thomas  Townshend. 

George  Onslow. 
First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  Lord  Halifax. 

Sir  C.  Saunders. 

Hon.  A.  Keppel. 

C.  Townshend  of  Honingham. 

Sir  W.  Meredith. 

John  Buller. 

Thomas  Pitt. 
f  General  Con  way. 
I  Duke  of  Grafton. 
Chancellor  of  Duchy,  Lord  Strange. 

*»»•••*.•        -     T-<          /  Duke  of  Leeds. 
Chief  Justices  in  Eyre,    s  T      ,  Ar 

I  Lord  Monson. 

f  Lord  Besborough. 
I  Lord  Grantham. 
Master  of  Ordnance,  Lord  Granby. 
Secretary  at  War,  Lord  Barrington. 
Paymaster,  C.  Townshend. 
Treasurer  of  the  Navy,  Lord  Howe. 
First  Lord  of  Trade,  Lord  Dartmouth. 

Soame  Jenyns. 

Edward  Eliot. 

John  Roberts. 

Jeremiah  Dyson. 

W.  Fitzherbert. 

George  Rice. 

Lord  Palmerston. 


Postmasters, 


Lords  of  Trade, 


[PAGE  56] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  Lord  Hertford. 
Ja.  Oswald. 


Vice-Treasurers , 


Lord  George  Sackville. 
Welbore  Ellis. 


A  LIST  OF  THE  MINORITY  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  COM 
MONS  WHO  VOTED  AGAINST  THE  BILL  TO 
REPEAL  THE  STAMP  ACT 

(From  a  contemporaneous  list.) ' 

J.  Abercrombie,  Esq.,  a  major  general  and  colonel  of  the 
44th  Regiment  of  foot.  Clackmannanshire. 

Edward  Bacon,  Esq.     Norwich. 

William  Baggot,  Esq.     Staffordshire. 

Sir  Richard  Warwick  Bamfylde,  bart.     Devonshire. 

Lord  Barrington,  Secretary  at  war.    Plymouth. 

Lord  Bateman,  Master  of  the  buckhounds.    Woodstock. 

Lord  Robert  Bertie,  Lord  of  the  King's  bedchamber,  a 
lieutenant-general,  governor  of  Cork  and  Colonel  of  the  7th 
Regiment  of  Foot.  Boston. 

Lord  Brownlow  Bertie.    Lincolnshire. 

Peregrine  Bertie,  Esq.    Westbury. 

William  Blackstone,  Esq.  Solicitor-general  to  the  Queen. 
Hindon. 

Sir  Walter  Blacket,  bart.    Newcastle  upon  Tyne. 

Richard  Wilbraham  Bootle,  Esq.    Chester. 

Thomas  Brand,  Esq.    Gatton. 

William  Bromley,  Esq.    Warwickshire. 

Hon.  Robert  Brudenel,  a  groom  of  the  bedchamber  to 
the  Duke  of  York,  and  colonel  of  the  4th  regiment  of  foot,  and 
lately  made  vice-chamberlain  to  the  Queen.  Marlborough. 

Sir  Thomas  Charles  Bunbury,  bart.    Suffolk. 

Sir  Robert  Burdett,  bart.    Tamworth. 

Honourable  John  Burgoyne,  Esq.  colonel  of  the  16th 
regiment  of  dragoons,  Midhurst. 

[PAGE  57] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

William  Matthew  Burt,  Esq.    Marlow. 

Honourable  Charles  Sloane  Cadogan,  surveyor  of  His 
Majesty's  waters,  and  treasurer  to  the  Duke  of  York.  Cam- 
bridgetown. 

Right  Honourable  Lord  Frederick  Campbell,  Glasgow, 
Renfrew,  &c. 

James  Campbell  Esq.,  governor  of  Stirling  Castle. 
Stirlingshire. 

Marquis  of  Carnarvon.    Radnorshire. 

Lord  Carysfort.    Huntingdonshire. 

Timothy  Caswell,  Esq.    Hertford. 

Earl  of  Catherlough,    Grimsby. 

Richard  Clive,  Esq.    Montgomery. 

James  Edward  Colleton,  Esq.    Lestwithiel. 

Sir  John  Hynd  Cotton,    Cambridgeshire. 

James  Coutts,  Esq.,    Edinburgh  city. 

Thomas  Coventry,  Esq.,  Director  of  the  Seouth-sea  Co. 
Bridport. 

Patrick  Crauford,  Esq.    Renfrewshire. 

Asheton  Cuzson,  Esq.    Clitheroe. 

Sir  Hugh  Dalrymple,  bart.    Dunbar,  &c. 

Sir  James  Dashwood,  bart.    Oxfordshire. 

Sir  John  Hussey  Deleval,  bart.    Berwick. 

John  Dickson,  Esq.    Peebleshire. 

Sir  James  Douglas,  admiral  of  the  white,  Orkney,  &c. 

Archibald  Douglas,  Esq.  lieutenant-general  and  colonel 
of  the  13th  regiment  of  dragoons.  Dumfrieshire. 

William  Drake,  Esq.    Amersham. 

Thomas  Erie  Drax,  Esq.    Wareham. 

Sir  Lawrence  Dundass,  bart.    Newcastle  under  line. 

Thomas  Dundas,  Esq.    Richmond. 

Thomas  De  Grey,  Esq.    Norfolk. 

Jeremiah  Dyson,  Esq.,  one  of  the  lords  of  trade.  Yarmouth, 
Hants. 

[PAGE  58] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

John  Eames,  Esq.,  one  of  the  masters  in  Chancery.  Yar 
mouth,  Hants. 

Archibald  Edmonstone,  Esq.    Dumbartonshire. 

Right  Honourable  Gilbert  Elliot,  Esq.,  treasurer  of  the 
Chamber.  Roxburghshire. 

Right  Honourable  Welbore  Ellis,  Aylesbury. 

Simon  Fanshawe,  Esq.,  comptroller  of  the  board  of  green 
cloth,  Grampound. 

Sir  Charles  Farnaby,  bart.    East  Grins tead. 

Earl  of  Farnham.    Taunton. 

Thomas  Foley,  Esq.    Droitwich. 

Alexander  Forrester,  Esq.    Oakhampton. 

Colonel  Eraser,  Invernessshire. 

Lord  Garlics,  Morpeth. 

Bamber  Gascoigne,  Esq.    Midhurst. 

Thomas  Gilbert,  Esq.  comptroller  of  the  King's  wardrobe. 
Newcastle  under  line. 

Sir  John  Glynne,  bart.    Flint  town. 

Lord  Adam  Gordon,  Colonel  of  the  66th  regiment  of 
foot.  Aberdeenshire. 

The  Marquis  of  Granby,  Master  of  the  Ordnance  and 
colonel  of  the  Royal  Regiment  Horse  Guards  Blue,  Cam 
bridgeshire. 

Sir  Alexander  Grant,  bart.    Fortrose,  &c. 

Charles  Gray,  Esq.    Colchester. 

David  Graeme,  Esq.  secretary  to  the  Queen,  a  major- 
general,  colonel  of  the  49th  regiment  of  foot,  Perthshire. 

Right  Honourable  George  Grenville,  Esq.  Buckingham 
town. 

Thomas  Grosvenor,  Esq.    Chester. 

Howel  G wynne,  Esq.    Old  Sarum. 

John  Hamilton,  Esq.  master  of  the  King's  works  in  Scot 
land.  Wigtown,  &c. 

[PAGE  59] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

William  Gerrard  Hamilton,  Esq.  chancellor  of  the  ex 
chequer  in  Ireland.  Pontefract. 

Honourable  Thomas  Harley,  Esq.    London. 

Sir  Henry  Harpur,  bart.    Derbyshire. 

James  Harris,  Esq.    Christchurch. 

Eliab  Harvey,  Esq.  King's  counsel,  Dunwich. 

Edward  Harvey,  Esq.,  a  major-general,  colonel  of  the  3d 
regiment  of  light  horse,  and  adjutant-general  in  North 
America.  Gatton. 

George  Hay,  L.L.D.  Dean  of  the  arches  court  and  judge  of 
prerogative  court  of  Canterbury.  Sandwich. 

Edward  Herbert,  Esq.    Ludlow. 

Lord  Hinchinbroke.    Brackley. 

Honourable  George  Hobart,  Esq.    Beeralston. 

Francis  Holbourne,  Esq.  vice  admiral  of  the  red.  Dum- 
ferling,  &c. 

Rowland  Holt,  Esq.    Suffolk. 

Jacob  Houblon,  Esq.    Hertfordshire. 

Honourable  Thomas  Howard,  Esq.    Castle  Rising. 

Thomas  Orby  Hunter,  Esq.    Winchelsea. 

Charles  Jenkinson,  Esq.,  auditor  of  accompts  to  the 
Princess  Dowager  of  Wales,  Cockermouth. 

John  Jolliffe,  Esq.    Petersfield. 

Robert  Jones,  Esq.    Huntingdon. 

Anthony  James  Keck,  Esq.    Leicester. 

Edward  Kynaston,  Esq.    Montgomeryshire. 

Peter  Legh,  Esq.    Ilchester. 

Marquis  of  Lome,  a  lieutenant  general  and  colonel  of  the 
1st  regiment  of  foot.  Dover. 

Richard  Lowndes,  Esq.    Buckinghamshire. 

Sir  James  Lowther,  bart.    Cumberland. 

Sir  Herbert  Lloyd,  bart.    Cardigan  town. 

Simon  Luttrell,  Esq.    Wigan. 

William  Lynch,  Esq.    Weobly. 

[PA  GE  6  0] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

John  Ross  Mackye,  Esq.  postmaster  of  the  ordnance. 
Kircudbright. 

Alexander  Mackay,  Esq.  colonel  of  the  65th  regiment  of 
foot,  Sutherlandshire. 

Right  Honourable  James  Stuart  Mackenzie,  Esq.  Rossshire. 

Lord  Robert  Manners,  colonel  of  the  3d  regiment  of  dra 
goons  and  lieutenant  governor  of  Hull.  Kingston  upon  Hull. 

John  Manners,  Esq.  Housekeeper  at  Whitehall.   Newark. 

Samuel  Martyn,  Esq.  treasurer  to  the  Princess  Dowager 
of  Wales.  Camelford. 

Paul  Methuen,  Esq.    Warwick. 

Right  Honourable  Thomas  Millar,  Esq.,  lord  advocate 
for  Scotland,  Anan,  Sanquhair,  &c. 

Thomas  Moore  Molyneux,  Esq.,  a  captain  in  the  3rd  regi 
ment  of  foot  guards.  Haslemere. 

Honourable  Archibald  Montgomery,  Esq.,  equerry  to  the 
Queen,  governor  of  Dunbarton  Castle,  &  deputy  ranger  of 
St.  James  and  Hyde  Parks.  Airshire. 

Sir  John  Mordaunt,  a  general  of  His  Majesty's  forces, 
governor  of  Sheerness,  colonel  of  the  10th  regiment  of 
dragoons.  Cockermouth. 

Sir  Charles  Mordaunt,  bart.    Warwickshire. 

John  Morton,  Esq.,  chief  justice  of  Chester.    Abingdon. 

John  Mostyn,  Esq.,  groom  of  the  bedchamber  to  the  King, 
colonel  of  the  1st  regiment  of  dragoon  guards  and  a  lieutenant 
general.  Malton. 

Lord  Mountstuart.    Bossiney. 

Richard  Neville  Neville,  Esq.    Tavistock. 

Sir  Roger  Newdigate,  bart.    Oxford  University. 

Lord  North.    Banbury. 

Sir  Fletcher  Norton.    Wigan. 

Right  Honourable  Robert  Nugent,  Esq.    Bristol. 

Edmund  Nugent,  Esq.,  groom  of  the  bedchamber  to  the 
King,  and  captain  in  the  1st  regiment  of  footguards.  St.  Maws. 

[PAGE  61] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

Robert  Henley  Ongley,  Esq.    Bedfordshire. 

Lord  Orwell.    Ipswich. 

Right  Honourable  James  Oswald,  Esq.,  joint  vice  treasurer 
of  Ireland,  Kinghorn,  &c. 

Earl  of  Panmure,  a  lieutenant  general  and  colonel  of  the 
21st  regiment  of  foot.    Forfarshire. 

Armstead  Parker,  Esq.,  Peterborough. 

Thomas  Pitt,  Esq.,  Old  Sarum. 

Sir  George  Pococke.    Admiral  of  the  blue.    Plymouth. 

George  Prescot,  Esq.    Stockbridge. 

George  Rice,  Esq.,  a  lord  of  trade.    Carmarthenshire. 

John  Robinson,  Esq.    Westmoreland. 

John  Lockhart  Ross,  a  captain  of  the  royal  navy.   Peeble- 
shire. 

Lord   George  Sackville,   joint  vice  treasurer  of  Ireland. 
Hythe. 

Honourable  Henry  St.  John,  groom  of  the  bedchamber  to 
the  Duke  of  York,  and  a  lieutenant  colonel.    Wotton  Basset. 

Sir  John  Sebright,  bart.  a  major  general  and  colonel  of  the 
18th  regiment  of  foot.    Bath. 

Henry  Seymour,  Esq.,  groom  of  the  bedchamber  to  the 
King.    Totness. 

Fane  William  Sharpe,  Esq.    Callington. 

Jennison  Shaftoe,  Esq.    Leominster. 

Henry  Shiffner,  Esq.    Minehead. 

James  Shuttleworth,  Esq.    Lancashire. 

Coningsby  Sibthorpe,  Esq.    Lincoln. 

Lord  Charles  Spencer,  verdurer  of   Whichwood   Forest. 
Oxfordshire. 

Right  Honourable  Hans  Stanley,  Esq.,  governor  of  the 
Isle  of  Wight.    Southampton. 

Sir  Thomas  Stapleton,  bart.,  Oxford  city. 

John  Stevenson,  Esq.,  a  director  of  the  East  India  company. 
St.  Michael. 

[PAGE  62] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

Sir  Simeon  Stuart,  bart.  a  chamberlain  of  the  Exchequer. 
Hampshire. 

Lord  Strange.  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster. 
Lancashire. 

Lord  George  Sutton.    Grantham. 

Marquis  of  Tavistock.    Bedfordshire. 

Earl  of  Thomond,  Minehead. 

Thomas  Thoroton,  Esq.  secretary  to  the  master  of  the 
ordnance.  Newark. 

John  Pugh  Pryse,  Esq.    Cardiganshire. 

Edward  Thurlowe,  Esq.,  King's  counsel.    Tamworth. 

Honourable  Henry  Frederick  Thynne.    Weobly. 

Sir  John  Turner,  bart.    King's  Lynn. 

Sir  Charles  Kemys  Tynte.    Somersetshire. 

Arthur  Vansittart,  Esq.    Berkshire. 

Richard  Vernon,  Esq.    Bedford. 

John  Upton,  Esq.    Westmoreland. 

Charles  Walcott,  Esq.    Weymouth  and  Melcombe. 

Robert  Waller,  Esq.    Chipping  Wycomb. 

John  Rolle  Walter,  Esq.    Exeter. 

Henry  Wauchope,  Esq.  deputy  privy  purpose  to  His 
Majesty.  Bute  and  Caithness. 

Honourable  John  Ward,  Esq.    Worcestershire. 

Lord  Warkworth,  aid-de-camp  to  the  King.   Westminster. 

Philip  Carteret  Webb,  Esq.    Haslemere. 

Alexander  Wedderburn,  King's  counsel.    Rothesay,  &c. 

Thomas  Whately,  Esq.    Luggershall. 

Honourable  Thomas  Willoughby,  Esq.    Nottinghamshire. 

Sir  Armine  Wodehouse,  bart.    Norfolk. 

Robert  Wood,  Esq.,  Brackley. 

167  Thomas   Worsley,   Esq.,   surveyor  of   the  board   of 
works,  Oxford. 

168  Right    Honourable    Richard    Rigby,    Esq.,     teller. 
Tavistock. 

[PAGE  63] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT:  AT  HOME 

EVERY  properly  brought  up  individual  in  the  United 
States  knows  the  resolutions  of  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
introduced  at  the  meeting  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
June  7,  1776. 

"That  these  united  colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be, 
free  and  independent  States;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all 
allegiance  to  the  British  crown;  and  that  all  political  connec 
tion  between  them  and  the  State  of  Great  Britain  is  and 
ought  to  be  totally  dissolved. 

"That  it  is  expedient  forthwith  to  take  the  most  effectual 
measures  for  forming  foreign  alliances. 

"That  a  plan  of  confederation  be  prepared,  and  trans 
mitted  to  the  respective  colonies  for  their  consideration  and 
approbation." 

While  the  delegates  were  awaiting  instructions  from  their 
various  colonies  as  to  what  they  should  do  concerning  these 
resolutions,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  set  a  committee  to 
work  drafting  a  paper  declaring  the  colonies  independent,  in 
case  such  a  declaration  should  need  to  be  used.  On  this  com 
mittee  were  Thomas  Jefferson,  Benjamin  Franklin,  John 
Adams,  Robert  R.  Livingston  and  Roger  Sherman. 

Shortly  before  this  time  Franklin's  health  had  suffered 
greatly,  partly  as  the  result  of  an  exhausting  journey  he  had 
made  to  Canada,  the  fatigues  of  which  would  have  wearied  a 
younger  man.  To  make  it  more  trying  still,  the  perilous  pil 
grimage  had  after  all  been  fruitless,  for  Canada  declined  to 
join  the  colonies  against  Great  Britain.  Rest  at  home  had  to 
a  great  extent  restored  Franklin's  health,  and  he  was  able 
again  to  carry  on  his  thousand  activities  on  behalf  of  Pennsyl- 

[PAGE  65] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

vania  and  the  other  colonies.  His  firm  belief  in  independence 
he  expressed  emphatically  and  in  his  own  characteristic 
fashion.  Formerly  he  had  franked  his  letters:  "Free,  B. 
Franklin";  he  now  enjoyed  inscribing  them,  "B  free  Frank 
lin."  One  of  his  memorable  sayings  was:  "Those  who  would 
give  up  essential  liberty  for  a  little  temporary  safety  deserve 
neither  liberty  nor  safety." 

As  is  well  known,  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
drafted  by  Jefferson.  Franklin  and  John  Adams  made  a  few 
verbal  changes,  which  may  be  seen  in  their  writing  on  the 
document.  Franklin  himself,  though  abler  with  his  pen  than 
any  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  never  drafted  a  state  paper 
which  was  really  famous.  His  biographer,  Parton,  says: 

"He  would  have  put  a  joke  into  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  if  it  had  fallen  to  him  to  write  it.  At  this  time,  he 
was  a  humorist  of  fifty  years'  standing.  Franklin  had  become 
fixed  in  the  habit  of  illustrating  great  truths  by  grotesque  and 
familiar  similes.  His  jokes,  the  circulating  medium  of  Con 
gress,  were  as  helpful  to  the  cause  as  Jay's  conscience  or 
Adams's  fire;  they  restored  good  humor,  and  relieved  the 
tedium  of  delay,  but  were  out  of  place  in  formal,  exact,  and 
authoritative  papers." 

One  famous  occasion  when  his  humor  relieved  the  tension 
was  the  time  during  the  debate  in  Congress  when  Jefferson 
sat  beside  him,  "writhing  under  the  mutilations"  being  per 
petrated  by  the  delegates,  as  he  felt,  on  his  paper.  "I  have 
made  it  a  rule,"  said  Franklin  to  Jefferson,  "whenever  in  my 
power,  to  avoid  becoming  the  draftsman  of  papers  to  be  re 
viewed  by  a  public  body."  Then  he  told  him  the  well-known 
story  of  his  friend  who  started  out  with  the  sign,  "John  Thomp 
son,  Hatter,  makes  and  sells  Hats  for  ready  money,"  with  a 
figure  of  a  hat  subjoined.  By  taking  the  advice  of  his  friends, 
he  ultimately  had  nothing  left  of  his  sign  but  "John  Thomp 
son,"  with  the  figure  of  the  hat. 

[PAGE  66] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

Franklin  was  wont  to  relieve  the  weariness  of  long-drawn- 
out  discussions  by  introducing  a  little  fun.  One  of  his  jokes, 
when  a  public  matter  had  grown  tedious,  was  as  follows: 

"I  begin  to  be  a  little  of  the  sailor's  mind  when  they  were 
handing  a  cable  out  of  a  store  into  a  ship,  and  one  of  'em  said : 
*  'Tis  a  long,  heavy  cable.  I  wish  we  could  see  the  end  of  it.' 

— ,'  says  another,  'if  I  believe  it  has  any  end;  somebody 
has  cut  it  off!'" 

Americans  of  a  later  date,  to  whom  the  fortunate  outcome 
of  the  planning  of  the  Continental  Congress  is  an  old  story, 
can  hardly  realize  what  a  serious  moment  it  was  when  the  time 
arrived  for  signing  the  Declaration.  The  arguments  of 
John  Dickinson  and  others  were  too  numerous  and  strong 
to  be  entirely  forgotten.  As  the  members  were  about  to  sign, 
tradition  tells  us  that  Hancock  said,  "We  must  be  unan 
imous;  there  must  be  no  pulling  different  ways;  we  must 
all  hang  together,"  and  that  Franklin  seized  this  excellent 
opportunity  to  make  the  grimly  witty  response,  "Yes;  we 
must  indeed  hang  together,  or,  most  assuredly  we  shall  all 
hang  separately!" 

Franklin  signed  his  name  with  that  gay  flourish  with 
which  he  commonly  decorated  his  autograph.  The  signature 
is  very  well  written.  It  stands  third  in  the  fourth  column  of 
names,  but  the  arrangement  is  such  as  to  throw  no  light  on 
the  question  of  who  signed  first  after  Hancock. 

The  real  date  of  the  signing  of  the  famous  instrument  has 
been  the  subject  of  much  discussion.  Passages  from  the 
writings  of  Adams,  Franklin  and  Jefferson  can  be  quoted, 
which  point  to  July  4  as  the  date.  McKean  is  equally  definite 
in  saying  that  nobody  signed  that  day.  John  H.  Hazelton, 
the  author  of  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  Its  History, 
and  other  authorities  who  have  weighed  the  evidence  on  this 
point,  have  shown  that  on  July  4  the  declaration  was  adopted, 
that  on  July  19  Congress  resolved  "that  the  declaration  passed 

[PAGE  67] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

on  the  4th  be  fairly  engrossed  on  parchment,"  and  that  on 
August  2  it  was  signed  by  most  of  the  members.  The  Journal 
of  Congress  records  for  August  2, 

"The  declaration  of  independance  being  enerossed  &  com 
pared  at  the  table  was  signed."  (The  spelling  follows  the 
original.) 

Some  of  the  names  to  be  seen  on  the  parchment  docu 
ment  in  the  State  Department  at  Washington  were  added 
after  August  2;  McKean,  Thornton,  Gerry,  Wolcott  and  a 
number  of  others  were  not  present  at  the  formal  signing. 


The  painting  shows  Franklin  just  affixing  his  signature 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  while  some  of  the  other 
signers  stand  or  sit  near.  Reading  from  left  to  right,  the 
portraits  are  those  of: 

Lyman  Hall  of  Georgia. 

Charles  Thompson,  secretary  of  the  Continental  Con 
gress,  whose  signature  does  not  appear  on  the  parchment 
Declaration. 

Samuel  Huntington  of  Connecticut. 

William  Whipple  of  New  Hampshire. 

William  Paca  of  Maryland. 

Thomas  Jefferson  of  Virginia,  the  writer  of  the  in 
strument. 

John  Hancock  (in  the  Speaker's  chair)  of  Massachusetts, 
president  of  the  Continental  Congress. 

Benjamin  Franklin  of  Pennsylvania. 

John  Adams  (seated)  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  committee 
which  drew  up  the  Declaration,  and  its  chief  defender  in  the 
debates  over  it. 

Edward  Rutledge  of  South  Carolina. 

William  Ellery  of  Rhode  Island. 

Philip  Livingston  (seated)  of  New  York. 

Francis  Hopkinson  of  New  Jersey. 

[PAGE  68] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

Joseph  Hewes  of  North  Carolina. 

Caesar  Rodney  (seated)  of  Delaware. 

These  men  were  among  those  who  almost  certainly  signed 
August  2,  1776. 

Even  a  casual  glance  reveals  the  individuality  in  all  these 
faces;  a  second  look  discovers  how  successfully  the  artist  has 
painted  the  features  and  expressions  which  are  to  most 
Americans  like  those  of  familiar  friends.  Nearly  all  the  faces 
show  something  of  the  anxiety  and  hard  thought  which  the 
adoption  of  the  Declaration  brought  with  it.  Franklin's  ex 
pression,  on  the  other  hand,  is  indicative  of  the  easy  good 
nature  with  which  even  in  somewhat  broken  health  he  was 
accustomed  to  face  all  events,  even  the  most  critical.  The 
average  age  of  these  men  at  the  time  of  signing  was  about 
forty  years;  Rutledge  was  only  about  twenty-seven,  Jefferson 
about  thirty-three,  and  Franklin  about  seventy. 

The  scene  is  in  the  Old  State  House,  now  Independence 
Hall.  Mr.  Mills  has  shown  it  as  it  looks  since  its  recent  restora 
tion.  Fortunately  the  original  plans  were  available,  so  that 
the  hall  in  all  its  detail  now  looks  as  it  did  in  Franklin's 
time.  The  silver  inkstand,  desk  and  chair  are  still  carefully 
preserved,  and  the  artist  made  a  minute  study  of  their  meas 
urements  and  patterns,  and  has  reproduced  them  with  abso 
lute  correctness,  as  well  as  every  pilaster,  base  and  moulding 
in  this  part  of  the  finely  ornamented  old  room.  The  inkstand 
was  originally  used  by  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly.  At  the 
signing  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  same 
table  was  used,  and  the  little  painting  on  the  back  of  the  chair, 
which  Mr.  Mills  has  reproduced,  acquired  a  significance  of 
its  own.  The  Constitution  had  at  last  been  drafted  and  was 
to  be  signed.  Madison  tells  us  that  when  some  members  were 
signing,  Franklin  said: 

"I  have  often  and  often,  in  the  course  of  the  session,  and 
the  vicissitudes  of  my  hopes  and  fears  as  to  its  issue,  looked  at 

[PAGE  69] 


FRANKLIN  THE  PATRIOT 

that  behind  the  president,  without  being  able  to  tell  whether 
it  was  rising  or  setting;  but  now,  at  length,  I  have  the  happi 
ness  to  know  that  it  is  a  rising  and  not  a  setting  sun." 

There  are  three  other  paintings  of  the  signing  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence :  one  by  Robert  Edge  Pine,  completed 
by  Edward  Savage;  one  by  Jonathan  Trumbull,  and  one  by  a 
French  artist,  Demarest.  All  three  pictures  are  very  inaccu 
rate  as  regards  detail. 


[PAGE  70] 


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FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST:   IN  FRANCE 

FROM  the  beginning  of  the  colonists'  difficulties  with 
the  mother  country  it  was  a  question  in  the  minds 
of  many  whether,  if  a  war  should  ensue,  the  Ameri 
cans  could  stand  out  against  Great  Britain.  At  this  time 
France  had  just  (1763)  ceded  to  Great  Britain  Canada  and 
other  valuable  possessions,  and  her  ancient  dislike  of  England 
was  by  this  loss  naturally  intensified.  As  a  matter  of  course, 
many  colonists  thought  of  France  as  a  possible  helper.  There 
were  in  France,  moreover,  statesmen  who,  at  the  first  hint  of 
war  here,  eagerly  anticipated  the  likelihood  that  Great  Brit 
ain's  strength  might  be  reduced.  They  were  willing  enough 
to  secure  for  France  the  rich  colonial  trade  which  had  hitherto 
been  England's,  and  favored  every  measure  which  might  help 
bring  about  her  loss  of  the  American  colonies.  "I  fancy," 
Franklin  prophesied,  "that  intriguing  nations  would  like  very 
well  to  meddle  on  occasion,  and  would  blow  up  the  coals  be 
tween  Britain  and  her  colonies."  The  Comte  de  Vergennes, 
the  minister  for  foreign  affairs,  was  very  eager  to  see  an  alli 
ance  made  with  the  colonies. 

The  Continental  Congress  appointed  a  secret  committee 
which  should  cautiously  correspond  with  friends  in  several 
countries  of  Europe,  particularly  in  France.  As  the  result  of 
their  operations,  very  welcome  shiploads  of  supplies  were 
surreptitiously  sent  to  the  colonies.  The  most  important 
member  of  the  Committee  of  Correspondence  was  Franklin. 
Shortly  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed, 
Congress  appointed  (September  26,  1776)  Franklin,  Jeffer 
son  and  Silas  Deane  as  agents  to  represent  the  colonies  at 
the  court  of  France.  Jefferson's  place,  because  of  his  wife's 
illness,  was  taken  by  Arthur  Lee.  Silas  Deane  was  a  Connecti- 

[P  AQE  7  1  ] 


FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST 

cut  man.  Arthur  Lee,  of  Virginia,  was  a  brother  of  Richard 
Henry  Lee.  "I  am  old,  and  good  for  nothing,"  Franklin  said 
with  regard  to  his  own  appointment,  "but  as  the  storekeepers 
say  of  their  remnants  of  cloth,  I  am  but  a  fag  end;  you  may 
have  me  for  what  you  please." 

This  "fag  end"  was  already  of  great  reputation  in  France. 
Even  the  peasantry  knew  of  his  feats  with  lightning,  and 
had  seen  pages  of  the  French  version  of  Poor  Richard's 
Almanac,,  which  were  sometimes  posted  up  in  their  cot 
tages.  He  received  an  affectionate  welcome,  which  proved 
the  introduction  to  a  sort  of  idolatry  which  lasted  throughout 
his  French  sojourn.  He  was  "the  venerable  sage,"  who, 
"with  his  gray  hairs  flowing  down  upon  his  shoulders,  his 
staff  in  his  hand,  the  spectacles  of  wisdom  on  his  nose,  was 
the  perfect  picture  of  true  philosophy  and  virtue."  In  an 
incredibly  short  time  every  home  had  its  portrait  of  "le 
grand  Franklin";  every  snuff-box  had  his  face  on  the  cover. 
He  was  equally  admired  by  philosophers  and  scholars,  by 
courtiers  and  ladies  of  rank  and  fashion.  He  was  invariably  a 
good  companion,  they  found,  and  as  witty  as  they  had  ex 
pected  "Poor  Richard"  to  be.  As  a  man  he  resembled  in 
many  points  the  gifted  Frenchmen  of  his  time;  for  instance, 
Voltaire  or  Beaumarchais.  He  was  equally  distinguished  in 
every-day  matters  of  business,  and  in  literature  and  science. 
The  fact  that  he  possessed  all  this  versatility  in  spite  of  old 
age  was  interesting  to  his  new  friends.  He  appealed  greatly  to 
the  imagination  of  the  French;  certain  details,  like  his  wearing 
of  an  unfashionable  fur  cap,  spoke  to  them  of  the  frontier,  red 
Indians  and  pathless  forests.  They  were  pleased  to  think  of 
him  as  a  naive  philosopher  who  had  lived  near  to  nature,  and 
who  was  now  almost  single-handed  wresting  liberty  from  the 
tyrant  for  his  people  in  the  western  wilderness.  Liberty  was 
a  beloved  word;  a  dozen  years  later  came  the  French  Revolu 
tion. 

[PAGE  72] 


FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST 

Dinners  and  week-end  visits  occupied  much  of  Franklin's 
time.  His  house  at  Passy,  a  suburb  of  Paris,  was  noted  for 
its  hospitality.  It  was  well  that  the  old  man  could  have  some 
gaiety  in  his  life.  His  old  enemy,  the  gout,  which  had  begun 
about  1749,  often  tormented  him.  His  work  as  diplomat  was 
manifold:  he  was  "merchant,  banker,  judge  of  admiralty, 
consul,  director  of  the  navy,  ambassador  to  France  and  negoti 
ator  with  England  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners."  In  the 
American  outlook  there  was  for  some  time  little  to  cheer  him. 
Sympathetic  as  France  was,  she  feared  to  take  the  field  openly 
against  Great  Britain  until  either  Spain  had  joined  her  or  she 
had  been  able  to  strengthen  her  own  forces,  or  until  the 
colonists  had  succeeded  in  somewhat  weakening  England. 
Tremendous  enterprises  were  undertaken  in  France  for  the 
help  of  American  independence,  but,  since  every  appearance 
of  friendliness  with  England  had  to  be  maintained,  the  most 
elaborate  precautions  had  to  be  resorted  to  in  order  to  keep 
these  undertakings  secret.  Supplies,  for  instance,  were  regu 
larly  contributed  from  the  king's  government,  but  they  were 
shipped  as  merchandise  by  a  business  firm,  "Hortales  et  Cie.," 
which  existed  merely  for  this  purpose. 

There  were  other  difficulties.  Congress  did  not,  or  could 
not,  organize  the  embassy  in  any  satisfactory  way.  This 
fact,  and  the  extreme  secrecy  which  must  be  maintained, 
made  an  orderly  conduct  of  affairs  complicated.  Among  the 
agents  and  other  Americans  who  were  awaiting  in  Paris  an 
opportunity  to  represent  the  new  republic  at  other  courts, 
there  grew  up  a  deplorable  spirit.  Some  of  the  suspicions 
voiced  at  that  bewildering  time  were  not  laid  to  rest  for  many 
years,  and  some  of  the  acts  of  injustice  committed  could  be 
only  tardily  and  imperfectly  rectified.  Franklin  had  to  endure 
endless  interference  and  abuse  at  the  hands  of  some  of  the 
agents.  In  judging  of  this  time,  however,  it  should  be  re 
membered  that  these  men  were  working  in  the  dark,  and  facing 

[PAGE  78] 


FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST 

personal  ruin  as  well  as  the  discomfiture  of  their  country. 
Undoubtedly  Lee's  uncomfortable  disposition  would  unavoid 
ably  have  embroiled  his  associates ;  still,  there  may  sometimes 
have  been  just  a  grain  of  reason  at  the  foundation  of  his  sus 
picions.  M.  de  Rayneval's  criticisms  were  harsh,  but  may 
have  had  some  warrant. 

"I  am  sorry  to  be  obliged  to  add,  monseigneur,"  he  says 
in  writing  to  Vergennes,  "that  personal  disinterestedness  and 
pecuniary  integrity  have  shed  no  lustre  on  the  birth  of  the 
American  Republic.  All  its  agents  have  derived  exorbitant 
profit  from  manufactures.  A  selfish  and  calculating  spirit  is 
widespread  in  this  land  and  although  I  can  well  see  that 
limits  are  put  to  its  extension,  there  is  no  condemnation  of 
the  sentiment.  Mercantile  cupidity  forms  perhaps  one  of 
the  distinctive  traits  of  the  American,  especially  the  northern 
people,  and  will  undoubtedly  exercise  an  important  influence 
on  the  future  destiny  of  the  republic." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  perplexing  circumstances  made 
it  impossible  to  judge  fairly  of  a  man's  disinterestedness. 
Doubtless  many  were  more  truly  patriotic  than  the  evidence 
seemed  to  indicate.  These  were  times  when  men  sometimes 
laid  down  their  reputations  for  their  country  instead  of 
their  lives.  A  diplomatic  circle  had  as  many  perils  as  a 
battle-field. 

The  military  losses  in  America  added  to  the  unhappiness 
of  the  agents.  Only  Franklin's  popularity  could  have  obtained 
the  needful  loans  and  ammunition  from  the  king's  government. 
When  Washington  had  lost  everywhere,  and  when  Howe  and 
Burgoyne  were  about  to  cut  the  country  in  two  with  their 
well-equipped  expeditions,  the  disagreements  of  the  agents 
were  lost  in  a  general  feeling  of  despair.  No  French  alliance 
seemed  possible. 

"Howe  has  taken  Philadelphia,"  said  some  one  who  had 
heard  the  sad  rumor. 

[PAGE  74] 


FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,"  corrected  Franklin,  keeping  up 
a  courageous  front  to  the  last.  "Philadelphia  has  taken 
Howe!"  He  hoped  his  words  might  prove  true.  It  really 
turned  out  that  Howe  was  shut  up  in  Philadelphia  for  some 
months. 

One  day  a  young  messenger  from  Massachusetts  stepped 
out  of  a  carriage  at  the  door  of  Franklin's  house  at  Passy. 
The  agents  were  talking  in  the  courtyard.  Franklin  went  to 
meet  him,  with  the  all-important  question: 

"Is  Philadelphia  taken?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  said  Austin. 

Upon  hearing  this,  Dr.  Franklin  clasped  his  hands,  and 
turned  as  if  to  go  back  into  the  house. 

"But,  sir,"  said  Austin,  "I  have  greater  news  than  that. 
General  Burgoyne  and  his  whole  army  are  prisoners  of  war!" 

"For  months  after  this,"  Austin  says,  "Dr.  Franklin  would 
break  from  one  of  those  musings  in  which  it  was  his  habit  to 
indulge,  and,  clasping  his  hands  together,  exclaim,  'Oh,  Mr. 
Austin,  you  brought  us  glorious  news!' 

These  tidings  arrived  December  3,  1777.  There  was  re 
joicing  in  France  as  over  a  French  victory.  There  was  now 
little  doubt  that,  if  France  were  openly  in  the  field  beside  her, 
the  young  republic  could  bring  the  war  to  a  successful  termi 
nation.  "Now  is  the  time  to  act,"  said  the  Comte  de  Ver- 
gennes,  "aut  nunc  aut  nunquam;  the  lost  time  was  perhaps 
not  our  fault,  but  there  is  no  more  now  to  lose."  The  discus 
sion  of  details  was  made  as  short  as  possible,  and  the  "treaties 
of  commerce  and  alliance"  were  signed  on  the  sixth  of 
February,  1778. 

On  this  triumphant  day,  Franklin  wore,  we  are  told,  the 
same  coat  of  spotted  Manchester  velvet  which  he  had  last 
worn  on  the  most  humiliating  day  of  his  life,  four  years 
before,  the  day  of  the  hearing  before  the  Privy  Council  of 
England.  Matters  relative  to  letters  written  by  Governor 

[PAGE  75] 


FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST 

Hutchinson  had  led  to  an  inquiry.  Wedderburn,  the  Solicitor 
General,  accused  Franklin  of  obtaining  these  letters  by  dis 
honest  means  and  of  using  them  dishonorably,  and  made  the 
occasion  an  excuse  for  pouring  forth  upon  Franklin  invective 
that  is  almost  unbelievable.  Through  all  the  slanderous 
accusations  and  insults,  some  of  which  are  said  to  have  been 
considered  unprintable,  Franklin  stood  near  the  fireplace, 
"conspicuously  erect,  without  the  smallest  movement  of  any 
part  of  his  body."  He  was  absolutely  silent,  and  his  face  was 
as  immovable  as  if  it  had  been  carved  out  of  wood.  After  the 
hearing  he  left  the  Cockpit,  as  the  place  of  meeting  was  called, 
still  silent.  Horace  Walpole's  epigram  concerning  this  affair 
of  the  Cockpit  is  worth  knowing: 

"Sarcastic  Sawney,  swol'n  with  spite  and  prate 
On  silent  Franklin  poured  his  venal  hate. 
The  calm  philosopher,  without  reply, 
Withdrew,  and  gave  his  country  liberty." 

This  incident  permanently  "changed  the  American  senti 
ment  toward  him  [Franklin]  from  lukewarm  admiration  to 
inflamed  respect,  enthusiasm,  and  affection." 

The  story  has  it,  that  after  this  affair  of  the  Cockpit, 
Franklin  was  never  seen  to  wear  the  Manchester  velvet  coat 
again  until  the  time  came  to  sign  the  treaty  of  alliance  with 
France.  Some  doubt  has  been  cast  on  the  story,  apparently 
because  of  a  tradition  that  Franklin  wore  this  coat  at  the 
signing  of  the  treaty  of  peace  which  ended  the  Revolutionary 
War  (in  1783).  At  this  time  he  seems  undoubtedly  to  have 
worn  black,  but  there  is  no  reasonable  ground  for  doubting 
that  Franklin  wore  this  velvet  coat  both  at  the  Cockpit  and  at 
the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  alliance.  When  asked  for  his  reason 
for  this  by  one  of  the  Americans  in  Paris,  he  smiled  and  said 
nothing.  There  is  a  tradition  that  Deane  inquired  why  he  wore 
this  coat,  and  that  Franklin  replied,  "To  give  it  its  revenge." 

[PAGE  76] 


FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST 

This  painting  shows  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  alliance 
between  the  united  colonies  and  France,  February  6,  1778. 

The  portraits,  from  left  to  right,  are: 

William  Temple  Franklin,  Benjamin  Franklin's  grandson, 
present  as  his  private  secretary. 

M.  Conrad  Alexandre  Gerard  de  Rayneval  (seated), 
secretary  of  the  council,  who  signed  on  the  part  of  the  king. 

Franklin,  Arthur  Lee  and  Silas  Deane,  the  three  repre 
sentatives  of  the  colonies  at  the  court  of  France. 

William  Temple  Franklin,  at  this  time  about  nineteen  or 
twenty,  was  the  son  of  Benjamin  Franklin's  son  William,  the 
governor  of  New  Jersey.  He  sympathized  enthusiastically 
with  the  cause  of  the  colonies,  although  Governor  Franklin, 
greatly  to  his  father's  sorrow,  sided  with  the  king.  "Temple 
Franklin"  was  a  favorite  with  his  grandfather,  who  educated 
him  at  a  school  near  London,  and  had  him  with  him  at  Passy. 
"My  grandson,"  he  said  in  a  letter,  "whom  you  may  remem 
ber  when  a  saucy  boy  at  school,  is  my  amanuensis." 

M.  de  Rayneval  was  of  an  Alsatian  family,  and  was, 
according  to  John  Durand,  endowed  with  a  philosophic  mind, 
great  tact  and  much  sagacity.  He  was  the  first  minister  to 
the  United  States  from  France.  There  is  a  portrait  of  him  in 
Independence  Hall,  which  was  painted  by  C.  W.  Peale  at  the 
request  of  Congress. 

The  actual  table  on  which  the  signing  of  the  treaty  took 
place  is  depicted  here.  It  is  still  preserved  at  the  Ministry  of 
Foreign  Affairs  in  Paris.  The  rest  of  the  furniture  and  fittings 
in  the  room  conform  to  the  French  fashions  of  the  last  quarter 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Franklin  is  represented  without  a  wig.  Although  earlier 
in  life  he  had  worn  the  regulation  wig,  in  France  we  hear  of 
"his  straight  unpowdered  hair."  "Franklin  appeared  at  court 
in  the  dress  of  an  American  farmer,"  wrote  Mme.  Campan. 
Doubtless  his  was,  as  she  said,  in  "singular  contrast  with  the 

[PAGE  77] 


FRANKLIN  THE  DIPLOMATIST 

laced  and  embroidered  coats,  &c.  of  the  courtiers  of  Versailles." 
In  the  latter  part  of  his  life  Franklin,  although  in  general 
well-formed,  was  inclined  somewhat  to  corpulency.  For  the 
color  of  the  Manchester  velvet  coat  which  he  wore  at  the 
signing  of  this  treaty,  the  artist  was  able  to  procure  a  sample 
in  Paris,  w^here  there  were  records  of  his  dress  on  this  occasion. 
The  faces  in  this  painting  are  studied  with  care  from 
authentic  portraits.  Arthur  Lee  wears  a  dissatisfied  look  as 
if  still  nervously  anxious  over  the  much-debated  "molasses 
article"  in  the  treaty. 


[PAGE  78] 


FRANKLIN'S   FINAL   HOME-COMING 


FRANKLIN'S  FINAL  HOME-COMING 

AFTER  the  signing  of  the  treaty  of  alliance,  Franklin 
continued  in  France  about  seven  years.  It  was  fortu 
nate  for  the  world  that  this  could  be,  for  he  played  a 
valuable  part  in  drafting  the  treaty  of  peace  which  closed  our 
Revolutionary  War,  and  in  reconciling  the  British  and  French 
representatives  to  its  terms. 

In  a  treaty  with  Prussia  (1785),  through  the  influence  of 
Franklin  there  were  incorporated,  says  J.  W.  Foster,  two  ad 
vanced  principles  of  international  law,  the  abolition  of  pri 
vateering  and  the  exemption  in  war  of  private  property  at 
sea.  This  has  been  called  "the  best  lesson  of  humanity  which 
a  philosophical  king  (Frederick  II)  acting  in  concert  with  a 
philosophical  patriot  (Franklin),  could  possibly  give  to  the 
princes  and  statesmen  of  the  earth." 

Franklin  was  uninterruptedly  a  favorite  with  the  French 
court.  Among  the  agents  from  America  he  had  enemies  who 
tried  repeatedly  to  persuade  Congress  to  recall  him.  But 
Congress  appreciated  that  he  was  doing  what  no  other  man 
could  do,  paid  no  heed  to  his  traducers  and  refused  his  own 
requests  to  be  relieved  of  the  hard  work.  At  last,  in  1785, 
when  he  was  in  his  eightieth  year,  the  burden  of  his  diplo 
matic  and  social  duties  in  Paris  seemed  to  him  too  heavy  to 
be  borne  longer,  and  he  succeeded  in  getting  his  release. 
Thomas  Jefferson  took  up  the  diplomatic  duties  at  Paris. 
"It  is  you,  sir,  who  replace  Dr.  Franklin?"  people  used  to  ask 
on  being  introduced  to  him,  and  he  often  replied,  "No  one 
can  replace  him,  sir,  I  am  only  his  successor." 

The  malady  from  which  Franklin  had  suffered  many  years 
made  travel  very  painful,  but  in  a  litter  belonging  to  Queen 

[PAGE  79] 


FRANKLIN'S  FINAL  HOME-COMING 

Marie  Antoinette,  carried  by  two  large  mules,  he  managed 
(July,  1785)  to  make  the  journey  to  the  coast.  Ovation  after 
ovation  greeted  "le  grand  Franklin"  along  the  road. 

At  Havre  de  Grace  he  embarked  for  England.  Of  the 
crossing  of  the  Channel  he  writes:  "I  was  not  in  the  least 
inconvenienced  by  the  voyage,  but  my  children  were  very 
sick."  The  "children"  were  his  two  favorite  grandsons, 
William  Temple  Franklin  and  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache. 
"Temple  Franklin,"  the  son  of  Gov.  William  Franklin  of  New 
Jersey,  had  been  his  private  secretary  in  Paris.  For  him  he 
had  ambitions  for  a  career  as  diplomatist  and  statesman, 
which  were  not  realized.  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache  was  the 
son  of  his  daughter,  Sarah,  and  Richard  Bache  of  Philadelphia. 
He  was  the  "Little  King  Bird"  and  the  "Bunny  Boy"  of 
Franklin's  correspondence  while  he  was  in  London.  During 
his  residence  in  France  he  had  had  Ben  at  school  in  Geneva, 
and  the  boy  had  often  visited  him  at  Passy.  After  his  return 
to  America  he  set  him  up  in  the  printer's  trade.  For  both 
these  grandsons  he  had  a  warm  affection. 

While  waiting  at  Southampton  for  his  ship,  Franklin  re 
ceived  visits  from  many  English  friends  and  admirers.  He 
embarked  July  27  on  board  the  London  Packet,  a  Philadelphia 
vessel  commanded  by  Capt.  Thomas  Truxton.  By  September 
13  the  ship  was  in  Delaware  Bay. 

"With  the  flood  in  the  morning,"  says  Franklin's  diary, 
"came  a  light  breeze,  which  brought  us  above  Gloucester 
Point,  in  full  view  of  dear  Philadelphia!  when  we  again  cast 
anchor  to  wait  for  the  health  officer;  who,  having  made  his 
visit,  and  finding  no  sickness,  gave  us  leave  to  land.  My 
son-in-law  came  with  a  boat  for  us;  we  landed  at  Market 
Street  wharf,  where  we  were  received  by  a  crowd  of  people 
with  huzzas,  and  accompanied  with  acclamations  quite  to 
my  door.  Found  my  family  well.  God  be  praised  and  thanked 
for  all  his  mercies!" 

[PAGE  80] 


FRANKLIN'S  FINAL  HOME-COMING 

Franklin  lived  for  about  four  years  after  returning  to 
America.  His  wife,  who,  despite  all  urging,  had  never  been 
willing  to  brave  the  perils  of  an  ocean  voyage,  had  died  in 
1774  during  her  husband's  agency  in  England.  His  sister 
Jane,  Mrs.  Mecom,  he  found  overjoyed  at  his  return.  He 
made  his  home  with  his  daughter  "Sally"  and  her  family, 
having  regained  "his  niche  after  being  kept  out  of  it  twenty- 
four  years  by  foreign  employment."  "I  ...  am  again  sur 
rounded  by  my  friends,  with  a  large  family  of  grandchildren 
about  my  knees,  an  affectionate,  good  daughter  and  son-in- 
law  to  take  care  of  me." 

He  had  hoped  when  he  sailed  for  home  to  enjoy  undis 
turbed  domestic  quiet.  "I  did  my  last  public  act  in  the 
country"  [signing  the  Prussian  treaty  in  France],  he  said, 
"just  before  I  set  out.  I  have  continued  to  work  till  late  in 
the  day;  'tis  time  I  should  go  home  to  bed."  But  a  very  im 
portant  duty  still  awaited  him.  The  United  States  Constitu 
tion,  which  should  ensure  the  permanence  of  the  work  done 
by  Washington,  Franklin  and  the  other  patriots,  was  still  to 
be  written  and  adopted.  In  spite  of  weariness  and  physical 
suffering,  Franklin  served  in  the  Federal  Convention,  lending 
a  guiding  hand  at  many  critical  moments.  His  great  contri 
bution  was  the  suggestion  that  the  lower  house  in  Congress 
should  represent  the  nation  according  to  population,  but  that 
in  the  senate  each  state  should  have  equal  representation. 
"When  a  broad  table  is  to  be  made,"  he  said,  "and  the  edges 
of  the  planks  do  not  fit,  the  artist  takes  a  little  from  both, 
and  makes  a  good  joint."  Without  this  compromise  probably 
no  federal  union  would  have  been  possible.  Moreover,  prob 
ably  the  members  would  not  have  all  signed  the  Constitution, 
had  it  not  been  for  Franklin's  speech,  asserting  that  with  all 
its  shortcomings  this  Constitution  was  better  than  none; 
quoting  the  woman  who  said,  "I  don't  know  how  it  happens, 
sister,  but  I  meet  with  nobody  but  myself  that  is  always  in 

[PAGE  81] 


FRANKLIN'S  FINAL  HOME-COMING 

the  right";  and  reminding  the  members  of  their  enemies  who 
were  confidently  expecting  "to  hear  that  our  councils  are 
confounded  like  those  of  the  builders  of  Babel,  and  that  our 
States  are  on  the  point  of  separation,  only  to  meet  hereafter 
for  the  purpose  of  cutting  one  another's  throats." 

The  Constitution  was  unanimously  adopted  September 
17,  1787. 

Franklin  died  April  17,  1790.  Till  the  very  end  of  his  days 
he  continued  to  be  sunny,  active  in  mind  and  brimful  of 
humor  and  wisdom.  Even  paroxysms  of  pain  only  temporarily 
interrupted  the  characteristic  anecdotes  with  which  he  enter 
tained  his  friends.  When  moderately  comfortable,  he  talked 
over  public  matters,  heard  his  grandchildren  say  their  spelling 
lessons,  or  wrote  letters  to  his  friends  abroad.  He  lived  to 
see  the  beginning  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  to  feel  some 
anxiety  for  his  friends  in  France.  It  is  noteworthy  that,  even 
in  the  excitements  of  the  revolution,  France  went  into  mourn 
ing  for  Dr.  Franklin. 

"I  have  public  business  enough  to  keep  me  from  ennui," 
wrote  the  old  philosopher,  "and  private  amusement  besides 
in  conversation,  books,  my  garden,  and  cribbage.  ...  I  have 
indeed  now  and  then  a  little  compunction  in  reflecting  that  I 
spend  time  so  idly;  but  another  reflection  comes  to  relieve 
me,  whispering,  'You  know  that  the  soul  is  immortal;  why 
then  should  you  be  such  a  niggard,  of  a  little  time,  when  you 
have  a  whole  eternity  before  you?'  .  .  .  The  last  hours  are 
always  the  most  joyous." 


The  last  picture  of  Mr.  Mills's  series  shows  the  final  home 
coming  of  Franklin  after  his  long  diplomatic  service.  During 
the  twenty -four  years  which,  except  for  a  short  stay  in  Amer 
ica,  he  had  been  away,  he  had  wrought  great  things  for  the 
united  colonies.  Now,  in  his  eightieth  year,  he  comes  back 
to  his  own  people.  The  old  philosopher  and  statesman  stands 

[PAGE  82] 


FRANKLIN'S  FINAL  HOME-COMING 

erect  in  a  rowboat,  with  his  hat  in  his  hand  and  his  face 
uplifted  to  receive  the  grateful  ovations  of  the  crowds  that 
fill  Market  Street  wharf  and  the  neighboring  shipping.  The 
boatman  is  just  bringing  the  dory  up  to  the  dock.  Behind 
Franklin  sits  his  son-in-law,  Richard  Bache,  holding  a  strong 
box.  In  the  background  is  a  ship,  possibly  the  one  which 
Franklin  has  just  left.  The  ships  are  of  the  type  commonly 
seen  at  this  period. 

In  none  of  the  series  has  Mr.  Mills  better  shown  the 
grandeur  and  dignity  of  Franklin  than  in  this  painting.  To 
one  who  had  spent  nine  years  in  attendance  on  the  Bourbon 
court  of  France,  the  reception  accorded  him  on  his  return  to 
Philadelphia  must  have  seemed  simple  and  democratic  in  the 
extreme.  But  Franklin  felt  the  sincerity  of  it,  and  saw  its 
homely  beauty.  Mr.  Mills  has  well  expressed  the  aged  man's 
joy  in  this  outburst  of  affection.  One  cannot  look  upon  his 
serenely  happy  face  without  knowing  that  the  shouts  of  his 
neighbors  and  fellow-citizens  meant  far  more  to  the  old 
patriot  than  all  the  applause  that  had  been  given  him  so 
lavishly  by  the  gay  court  of  Louis  XVI. 


[PAGE  83] 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


REC'P  UP 


-o  PM 


— 


DEPT. 


General  Library 


